


Rising Tide, Crashing Sea

by Scriberat



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, mermaid au, supermer yoosung, yoosung is a merperson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-09-13 06:58:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 59,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9111559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scriberat/pseuds/Scriberat
Summary: Yoosung is a merperson who dreams of finding love beyond the borders of the extensive ocean. Saeran is just looking for something interesting to do in the summer. He wasn't planning for that to be hanging out with his new "friend."





	1. Chapter 1

Yoosung approached the ship carefully, trying not to get hurt. His curly locks floated around him, bobbing with the currents he was causing. He fiddled with a string of pearls around his neck, rubbing them in turn until he reached the black star pendant that was set firmly in the middle of the pearls. He swam forward, flinching at the sound of his bracelets jangling against each other. They were always so loud.

The wood was ancient, and overgrown with algae. There was a big pointy stick thing, the thickest thing Yoosung had ever seen, right at the top of the ship, or at least, what he assumed was the top. He knew that the surface was up, and he had only ever seen moving ships from below, so the flat part on the opposite side had to be this thing’s dorsal side. Maybe the stick was a dorsal bone of some sort? Regardless, it didn’t seem like there was a way inside from the top.

Of the ships that Yoosung had explored, this one didn’t have anything indicating the reason for its death, and was therefore the oddest. The bottom part was okay, the top part was okay. It just… sank, so it seemed. Yoosung gripped onto the slimy dorsal side, crawling along carefully until he reached one of the metal blowholes. He pulled it open, swimming hard to get it to cooperate. Once it did, he slipped inside cautiously.

“Alright,” he muttered, “let’s see what you have.” He followed some weird wooden contraption made of descending slats, looking carefully around for anything that might have been left behind. The inside was less touched by algae, but it was starting to crawl down the walls. He found nothing in the first part, and swam along, determined to find something to make this trip worthwhile.

Pushing open the wall parts that weren’t actually wall proved fruitless, as well, as Yoosung drifted down a hallway, checking the different areas. He found more of the slats leading downward, and kept searching. There were a bunch of metal cylinders, round at one end, and open at the other. Metal balls were also stored here. Yoosung looked at the opening for one of the cylinders, then at the balls, and figured they were probably made to go together, for some reason. He kept swimming.

The next slat set down had a pleasant surprise. There were wooden chests with metal locks on them. That always meant that there was something cool inside. Yoosung lightly touched the pendant around his neck, smiling at his success. He pulled at one of the locks with all his might. It refused to budge.

“Hmm. You don’t want to come undone yourself? Then I’ll just have to break you open.” He swam back up to the metal balls, grabbing one. Between his strength and the water, it was pretty easy to lift. Yoosung swung it hard at the lock, busting it open. He pulled it off, then opened the chest itself. There was gold inside, something that Yoosung had learned these strange wooden beasts valued greatly. Glittery stones, some perfectly clear, some less so, were mixed in among the gold. Yoosung picked one up, observing it for a moment before setting it to the side.

He got quite a bit of the gold out of the chest before finding some of the string things that were on these ships sometimes. There was another big necklace. Yoosung slipped it on, along with another one and a couple bracelets. He’d gotten some stuff out of the ship, and that meant his trip was done. He went up again, replacing the ball he’d taken, then drifted through the ports that the cylinders were aimed at.

Yoosung headed home after that, a journey that would take until the sun, hanging high overhead, was almost halfway down the sky. The sky was a weird thing, for sure. It housed the sun that gave life to his home, and it looked blue, like the ocean did. Sometimes weird white things would move across it. Of course, Yoosung never mentioned that he looked at the sky. If he did, then his friends would think he was weird, or worse, drifting away.

He never said a thing about it.

Yoosung sensed a current near him, heading in the same direction as him, and directed himself into it, riding easy for some time and kicking along as he needed. As he went, he saw other merfolk like himself come into the current, heading home after swimming around. 

“Hey~” he called to one of his friends. His friend waved as he joined the current, swimming up beside Yoosung. His long silver hair flowed elegantly behind him.

“Hey, Yoosung, what’s up? Oh, did you go and find more cool stuff? What’d you get?”

“I got a bracelet you might like,” Yoosung said, holding up his wrist. It had red stones in it. Yoosung surmised that the ships ingested the gold and jewels like oysters take in sand, shoving them together into these pretty things so they didn’t irritate anymore.

“Sweet! Can I have it?”

“As long as you save me a spot up close to your performance tonight, Zen.”

“Deal. Consider the spot saved.” Yoosung smiled and took the bracelet off, handing it to his now excited friend. Once Zen put it on, he was admiring the bracelet, to the point that Yoosung had to pull him along.

“Zen, you need to get over yourself. Just because you’re handsome doesn’t mean you can be a public safety hazard.

“I know.” Zen flipped his tail lazily, maintaining his tread in the current. Yoosung watched the red tail as it moved up and down, mesmerized as most mer were by its languid characteristics. It was long, and the fins themselves were perfectly symmetrical, strong looking, but delicate at the same time. Zen really had gotten the best scales off of Mama. Even his dorsal fin was elegant to a fault.

They went along, as other merpeople joined and left the current. Yoosung was content to simply drift along. He had nowhere to be, after all.

“Hey, I heard that the land mers found another wreckage. They’re planning on letting some of them around it,” Zen said.

“Where did you hear that?”

“A little bird told me.”

“Really? Was that bird a seagull, or an actual informant?”

“What are you implying?”

“Seagulls are really stupid, Zen. Everyone knows that. They’ve got the basics to survival, but hardly anything past that.” Yoosung raised an eyebrow, looking over to Zen as he started laughing.

“That’s fair. But no, this is an actual informant. He said that they’ve made some wreckage somewhere safe for the land mer to be around, so they’re letting small groups in at a time.”

“Oh, cool! This could be my chance to meet one.”

“I wouldn’t suggest it. They’re cruel.”

“Oh please, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“They could kill you. Don’t go near the land mer, Yoosung.” Zen gave Yoosung a hard glare. Yoosung tried to stand against it, but failed miserably.

“Okay. I won’t.”

“Good. This is my fork. See you later, Yoosung.”

“See you, Zen,” Yoosung said, as Zen swam out of the current and onto a smaller one that branched off. Yoosung looked around him, seeing the city he lived in in the distance, lit up against the blackness that had surrounded him as he and Zen had been talking. He shook himself briefly, causing luminescent scales across his body to light up.

He didn’t have the prettiest tail, or the nicest light pattern, but he was still pretty cool. Of course, if he was cool, he would have a girlfriend. Yoosung sighed as home got closer. Maybe he just wasn’t attractive to other mer? Then, did that mean he would be forever alone? Yoosung shook his head to clear it of that thought. It was replaced by what Zen had said earlier, about the land mer coming down into the ocean to explore a wreck.

Maybe his own kind didn’t find him attractive, but would they? No, that was a dangerous thought. If Yoosung voiced that, he would be accused of drifting from Mama and the ocean, and that was a really bad thing. He was curious about the land dwelling mer, with their two tails that moved in opposite directions as they swam, but that didn’t mean he wanted people thinking he was weird, or worse, shunting him until he finally left.

That had happened to another merperson several years ago. No one wanted to get caught in the drift, so they left that mer alone until, one day, no one knew where they were. They had just… disappeared. It was a harrowing thought. Yoosung buried the thought of drifting away from his home like that.

The city lights enveloped Yoosung suddenly, just as the inky blackness had. He shook his light off, swimming along under his own power, now that the current had ended. His home was in the Shell District, where ancient and massive shell-dwellers had lived and died. There was a legend that the shells had been moved there by Mama herself, as a gift to the merpeople. Not everyone believed it, but Yoosung didn’t think there was a single mer in the entire world who didn’t know about and at least respect Mama.

His shell home was a conch, belonging once to three different crabs. The final one, and the one that left the most obvious striations all over the walls, was the one that died where its shell now stood. Yoosung smiled when he saw the shell, lit up to ward off the darkness, its kelp curtain moving gently in the swirls. He moved it aside, setting his new trinkets down on a platform thing that the ships had had inside them. There had been stuff on top of it, declaring its purpose.

It wasn’t uncommon for merpeople to find shipwrecks and raid them for various pretty or useful things. Yoosung knew someone nearby who collected the massive pieces of twisted metal that resided on the sides of ships, or near the bottoms. It was hard to move around in her home without getting poked or stabbed.

In comparison to some residences, Yoosung’s shell was homey, but sparse. The striations from the crab scored the walls in a number of places, creating convenient storage spaces for neat things. Yoosung picked up a necklace with a round thing at the bottom. It opened to reveal another circle, this time with an arrow pointing toward a mark. There were three other marks around the edges of the circles, each one different from the last. He set it back down, marveling at how the arrow always pointed in one direction, regardless of which mark it was pointing to, if any at all.

Yoosung swam up the hall, as it twisted further and higher into the shell. A long time ago, when this shell was being renovated for living, someone had busted a hole in the wall, then refined it. That hole led to Yoosung’s personal area. This was where he kept his best treasures, the ones that he couldn’t find a reference for in the texts that the library had on land mer items.

He was a bit more of a collector than most mer. Did they sense a drift in him? Was that why he couldn’t get a date? Yoosung shrugged mentally, picking up a silver and black box thing with a glass sheet on one side. He was curious to know what it was for, if anything. The jewelry was obvious, but this… this was really strange. He had found it sitting in some muck, and nowhere near a wreck.

Putting it back, Yoosung swam out of his home and into the black, lighting up his face. He coasted along slowly, watching with sharp eyes as a fish was attracted to the light emanating from him. It swam near, investigating. Yoosung opened his mouth and lunged, catching the fish swiftly. Holding onto its wriggling body with his hands, he ate his dinner.

He went to the theater next, where several merpeople performed nightly. The acts were always changing, since they only had one place for performances in the city, but Yoosung knew that he was basically guaranteed to see Zen. He was a favorite, and had slots for every night. He usually performed once every several days, anyway, preferring to let other talent have some time on the stage. This was one of the nights he would be performing, since he was back in town.

Yoosung approached a giant clam that was large enough to allow several mers to swim comfortably within the borders of its shell. Already, there was a ton of other mers drifting around the edges, some rising higher than the people in front so they could see. Yoosung swam toward the front, looking for his spot. He saw his friend, Jaehee, practically lounging in enough water for two mers. Yoosung swam over to her.

“Ah, Yoosung, you made it.”

“Yeah, I needed to drop some stuff off at home,” Yoosung said.

“Did you get dinner on the way?” Jaehee asked. Yoosung nodded.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Yes, I got some food earlier. It feels good to be able to relax.”

“I’ll bet.” Yoosung settled down next to Jaehee as she shifted to the side to let him in. He settled back, treading water to keep himself in one spot. The show started, and Zen appeared, the star of the show he was performing. It was about a hero who had to brave the ocean’s darkest depths to rescue his son. Zen played the part well. Yoosung tried comparing the acting to other characters the actor had played, but he found very little in common, aside from Zen’s features.

The play ended, with the hero and his son being reunited and living safely back home, along with several supporting characters who had aided in the search. Yoosung clapped along with everyone else, though not nearly as hard as Jaehee. She cheered as the performers bowed.

Zen left the stage, immediately mobbed by fans. Jaehee waited patiently to the side with Yoosung as the crowd frothed around the red-tailed merman. It took quite some time, but the other mers finally left, allowing Zen to move properly. Jaehee swam up.

“You were splendid on stage, Zen, as always.”

“Aw, come on, I’m not that good, yet.”

“Everyone seems to think you’re very good,” Jaehee said. “Including me.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like there’s a variety of things to do down here,” Zen replied. “I’m just an entertainer. And you? I thought you just came to my shows because you’re my friend.”

“No, I really am a huge fan of your work.” Yoosung watched them talk for awhile longer, until Jaehee excused herself to go home. Zen went over to Yoosung.

“Jaehee’s really nice, you know?” said Zen, as the pair moved off toward Yoosung’s shell.

“Yeah, she is,” said Yoosung.

“You should date her.”

“What!? No way! She’s my friend, that’d be weird!”

“Weird, huh? I guess so. At any rate, I haven’t had a girlfriend in years. Maybe I should date her? Ah, but if I do, it’ll distract from my acting.”

“What a horrible conundrum. Meanwhile, I’ve never even been on a date before.”

“Poor innocent Yoosung. You’ll find someone, someday.”

“Maybe, but I’m starting to lose hope.”

“Listen, there is someone in this ocean for you. You just have to get out there and introduce yourself. Be friendly.”

“I am! It still doesn’t help.” They arrived at Yoosung’s shell, so he parted the curtain. “See you tomorrow, Zen.”

“Alright. See you.”

“Oh, wait! Zen!” Yoosung called, suddenly remembering the wreck. “Where’s the wreck that the land mer are supposed to be checking out?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to go there,” Zen said.

“No, I just want to avoid it. You know I like collecting stuff from ships.”

“Right.” Zen sighed. “It’s a ways past the coral forest, near the sharp rocks from that earthquake awhile back.”

“Okay, thank you. I think I’ve already checked that one, actually,” Yoosung said. He entered his shell as Zen left, swimming up to his personal area. There was a bed of fuzzy plants that had been grown in a corner of the area for sleeping. Yoosung laid back on it, collapsing his dorsal fin and settling in for the rest of the night. He had checked out the wreck past the corals, but a new treasure had appeared there, and that meant going back.

He suddenly realized that he had no idea when the land mers were going to be at that wreck. It didn’t matter. Ships and boats tended to flock to certain areas at certain times. Yoosung would probably be alerted with everyone else, once the land mer started to arrive again.

Yoosung was reminded of a time, some years ago, when he had played in the shallows with his sister. It was a remote area, near the city, but far from the land dwellers. He hadn’t been there for a long time. After awhile, the coast had been deemed too dangerous for mers to go near. The wreck was pretty close to some shore, also, wasn’t it?

It didn’t matter. Yoosung would find out when the land mer came, and then he would go and see them. For now, he just wanted some sleep. But would they come into view? Could he attract them somehow?

 

Saeran tossed a rubber ball into the air, catching it again. His brother had said that he was planning a trip for them, but Saeran still had no idea what was going on. He tossed the ball again, letting it fall where it wanted as he glanced at the scuba gear Saeyoung had gotten for him. Whatever they were doing, it had something to do with the ocean. That made sense, it was only about ten minutes away. Some of his hair fell into his face. He did his best to brush the red locks away without getting them stuck in his brow piercings.

“Saeran! You ready to leave?” called Saeyoung from somewhere in the apartment. Saeran grabbed his gear, dragging it out of his room and down the hall into the living room. Saeyoung had opened the curtains and the windows, something that rarely happened, considering they were both shut-ins. He raised an eyebrow. Saeyoung popped out of their kitchen.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Where are we going?” Saeran asked.

“We’re going… to the ocean!” Saeyoung said, pointing dramatically.

“I figured. Why?”

“Some workers have made a nearby wreck safe to explore, and they’re opening it up for exploration as of today! So we’re gonna go explore it!”

“I see. Sounds fun, let’s go.” Saeran hoisted his scuba gear, carrying it to the front door.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah.” Saeyoung hurried along after him, dragging his own scuba gear and a picnic basket. “You made food?” Saeran asked.

“Of course! We’re gonna be out on the ocean all day long! We’ve gotta keep our strength up.”

“I wish you had told me. I could’ve made it myself.”

“Aww, such a caring brother I have, wanting to make his elder food.”

“You’re ten minutes older, and if we eat your food, we won’t be able to get in the water for three hours,” Saeran said, rolling his eyes. Saeyoung gawped. They brought their things down to one of Saeyoung’s cars. He chose the yellow one for this trip.

“Not the red?”

“Nope, not this time! This is just a special outing for you and me, so I’m not bringing one of my really flashy babies.” Saeran rolled his eyes as he dumped his gear in the back seat before sitting in the passenger side. Saeyoung hopped in next to him and started the car, then pulled out and drove to the ocean. Saeran quietly counted the minutes as the radio played some music. Ten minutes later, and Saeyoung was parking at the beach lot.

There was a sign set up that advertised special diving adventures at the docks down the beach.

“Come on!” Saeyoung said, grabbing his gear and the basket.

“Why is this shit so heavy?” Saeran muttered. He looked to where the docks were, a good hundred meters away. He heaved a sigh, lugging the scuba equipment behind him. Saeyoung dragged the basket with him. Saeran grabbed one of the handles of it, helping his brother out a bit.

“Thanks, Saeran.”

“No problem. Well, slight problem.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Dragging this stuff is going to make me hungry enough to want to eat it.”

“Hey!” Saeyoung pouted. Saeran smirked. They made it to the docks without falling more than a few times on the dry sand, and found the boat that Saeyoung had chartered for their trip.

“Welcome aboard, you two. Ready to go for a look around an ancient wreck?”

The boat got moving, heading out to the location advertised. Saeran sat down and faced the direction they were moving in, enjoying the feeling of the wind on his face. He watched the clouds overhead as they drifted along in their own way, shifting as they went. The boat slowed and stopped on the water, rolling as the waves went by. Saeran got up and pulled his gear on, Saeyoung doing the same.

“Here we go,” Saeyoung said, sitting at the edge. He hopped off. Saeran followed him, slipping into the water with ease. Growing up in a coastal town, they had had the chance to do this sort of thing often. Saeran was sick a lot, but he had still managed to get his scuba licence.

Down below the water, everything was blue. Saeran rose above the water to put his mask on, then sank below it again. He still couldn’t see much beyond blue, but at least he wasn’t going to die from a lack of oxygen. Saeyoung was swimming along ahead of him. He turned toward Saeran, pointing down, then motioned for him to follow. Saeran complied. Down deeper was the wreck, sitting on the ocean floor.

It was an old ship, made of wood, but it was clearly made for war. Saeran counted three decks below the top one, including a gun deck. There were a few other people around, but it didn’t seem like the site was too popular yet. Saeran breathed a sigh of relief as he kept an eye on Saeyoung.

A hatch on the deck led below. Saeran pried it open carefully, swimming inside once it flipped over. He grabbed the stairs on his way down, looking around the next deck down. It was dark. Saeran turned on his flashlight attached to his goggles. He was able to see much more clearly now. There were support poles, with decayed hammocks attached to rusted hooks. There wasn’t a whole lot on this deck. He went down another one, finding the cannons and shot. They were rusted, too.

Saeran kept looking around, wondering if there was any treasure around. He doubted it. Swimming down another deck, Saeran encountered the cargo hold. There weren’t even any chests inside, just an empty hold with a few crates. He sighed mentally, figuring he may as well look around anyway. Deeper in, he found a lot more nothing, but there was a sparkle of something behind a crate. He went to take a closer look, and found a necklace. There was a bracelet nearby, and another one after it, all in a line. More jewelry was leading him to a pile of crates on the far side of the hold. Saeran followed it carefully, pulling out his knife. He rounded the corner, finding… a mermaid?

“Shello,” it said. Saeran screamed mutedly, air streaming from his mask. The mermaid smiled with razor sharp teeth, glowing purple from its face to its tail, illuminating violet eyes, blond hair, and a lot of fins. Saeran waved his knife at it, then turned and swam away as quickly as he could. He was so not dealing with this bullshit.

“Wait! I want to talk to you!” The mermaid swam after him, then blocked his exit to the next deck up. Saeran slashed at it again, trying to get the fish person to move out of the way. “Whoa. What’s this?” The mermaid grabbed his arm, stopping it from moving completely as it investigated his knife. “This is really cool! What does it do?” It poked the dull side, then the sharp side, seeming surprised as blood came flowing out. Saeran took the opportunity to push it to the side, swimming away up the stairs and to the gun deck.

He had a number of openings he could swim through, but they were all blocked by cannons. Saeran struggled to pull one back. The mermaid snuck up behind him.

“Are you trying to get through here?” It moved the cannon out of the way effortlessly, then backed off. “Can we talk now? I’m really curious about your world.” Saeran looked back at the mermaid, pausing a moment. Then he shook his head. He was really not here for this, especially since he still had that lunch that Saeyoung had packed to stomach later. He needed some stomach for it.

He swam out the hole.

Outside, there were a lot of really sharp rocks. Saeran made sure to avoid them as he swam toward the surface.

“Aw, come on, please?” Saeran started, backing suddenly away as the mermaid showed up again. It looked like it was pouting but his tank was definitely punctured.

Saeran held his breath quickly, swimming for the surface with a lot more desperation than before. It was so far away, and he didn’t have a very long breathspan. He might make it… Saeran ran out of oxygen. His tank was full of water. He wasn’t going to make it.

The last thing he remembered seeing was the mermaid.


	2. Chapter 2

When Saeran opened his eyes, he found himself looking at the dimly lit interior of a cave. The light moved back and forth almost like waves. He looked over and saw that it was sunlight reflecting off the water. Blinking hard, Saeran sat up and observed his surroundings further.

He was on a shelf above the waterline. The rock comprising the cave walls was rough, and damp. It was a pretty comfortable spot, all told. His busted tank sat next to him, with a strange creature next to it.

The mermaid.

Saeran bit back a scream. What was an actual mermaid doing here?

“Who are you?” he asked, shaking.

“I’m Yoosung. Are you okay? You looked like you were in trouble for a bit, there.” Its eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Uh...”

“Well, since you’re awake,” the creature --- Yoosung --- moved closer. “Can you tell me about yourself? Your world is so strange. I wanna know more.” Saeran backed up. Yoosung had weird eyes, a bright purple color, and completely filling the socket. There were no whites that he could see. His hair was blond, and his skin pale. Fins protruded where Yoosung’s ears would be. They looked folded up. Webbing was between his fingers, and he had sharp claws. His tail was purple like his eyes, with fins on the side, the back, and, of course, the main tail right at the end. There was even a semi-transparent finny belt at his hips, marking where his skin ended and his tail began.

“You… you want to learn about my world?” Saeran asked. He realized that his breathing mask was still on. He pulled it off, much to Yoosung’s amazement.

“You can detach your face!?” His ear fins flared a bit. They were definitely folded.

“What? No, it’s a mask.” Saeran held the mask up. Yoosung reached for it tentatively, and Saeran handed it to him. The mermaid observed it, then tried it on. His eyes bugged out and he took it off.

“That’s so weird,” he breathed.

“Yeah. This can be taken off, too,” Saeran said, pulling at his wetsuit.

“Really? Can I try?”

“N-no.” Saeran felt his ears getting hot. Thankfully, he didn’t blush across his cheeks, but anyone who knew him, like his brother, knew that his ears were the tell for embarrassment.

“Whoa, your ears are turning color. Why can’t I?”

“Because it’s weird.”

“Like the mask?”

“Sort of...”

“Sort of?” Yoosung cocked his head. Now that Saeran was getting used to him, he was actually kind of cute.

“Yeah. The mask is fine, because everyone sees my face, anyway. But, we usually wear clothes over our bodies. It’s considered a bad thing to not wear clothes around other people.”

“You’re not around other people, now.” Yoosung edged forward a bit. Saeran hummed, then shrugged. He could always put it back on afterward. He unzipped his wetsuit, peeling it off to reveal his swimming trunks, a practical if embarrassing speedo. He hadn’t realized how cold it was in the cavern until he was sitting there almost completely naked.

“Your sticks are fuzzy.”

“Legs,” Saeran said as he took his flippers off. “And yeah. That’s hair.”

“Even your flippers can come off? What are these things?”

“Those are my feet.” Saeran wiggled his toes. Yoosung oohed. He poked at them, looking over Saeran’s feet.

“What do they do?”

“They help me walk.”

“Walk?”

“Like this.” Saeran stood up and walked around. Yoosung watched him in awe as he did, fins fluttering. Saeran sat back down after.

“Walking is so cool!”

“I guess. I’ve been walking basically my whole life. I think my brother could walk before me. Not long before, though.”

“Your brother?”

“Yeah. His name is Saeyoung.”

“Saeyoung? What’s your name?”

“Saeran.”

“Nice to meet you, Saeran!” Yoosung grinned, showing off sharp teeth. Saeran smiled nervously back, then bowed. Yoosung bowed in return.

“What’s with the bow?”

“It’s how we greet each other,” Saeran said. He sat back down near Yoosung.

“Will you tell me more?” Yoosung asked.

“Yeah. It’s fun talking to you.” Saeran started when Yoosung’s earfins flared, extending fully. He leaned forward, suddenly very close to Saeran, then their lips met for an instant.

“What the fuck!?”

“What’s a fuck?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

“It’s a sign of affection. Does your kind not kiss each other?”

“Not like that. Kissing is… intimate.”

“Kissing is? We kiss each other all the time, back home.”

“Just don’t kiss me again.”

“Okay. What’s a fuck?” Saeran stared at Yoosung, as realization set in that this entire conversation was going to be extremely awkward.

“’Fuck’ is a swear.”

“A swear?”

“You really don’t have swears under the sea?”

“Maybe?”

“Well, do you ever say things that you shouldn’t say around children? Like, if you’re angry at something, or annoyed, or you get hit by something.”

“Oh! Yeah. Sometimes, when no one’s around, and I bump into something, I’ll say, ‘cod clammit.’ But, only ever very quietly. I don’t want people to hear me, and sound travels really well under water.”

“Your swears are fucking fish puns?”

“I guess so. They seem pretty normal to me. Though, I guess I am kinda fishy, huh?” Yoosung giggled. Saeran let himself laugh a little, too.

“How about those weird things in your face?” Yoosung pointed to Saeran’s numerous piercings. He fiddled with one of his spider bites, a pair of piercings by his lips.

“They’re piercings. Bits of metal we put in for decoration.”

“You pierce yourselves for decoration?”

“Yeah. We also get tattoos, sometimes. Not everyone does. It’s painful.”

“I see. How much did they hurt?”

“Not too much. I’ve got a high pain tolerance. These two are spider bites. This one’s an eyebrow piercing,” Saeran tapped a ring in his right eyebrow, “and these two, too.” He pointed to two barbells through the left brow. “This one’s a septum piercing.” The last one was through his nose.

“Oh, wow! What about the ones in your ears?”

“Those? Through the lobe is standard,” Saeran said, turning his head. Yoosung reached out and touched the lobe piercing, moving through five that were in a line. An earcuff with a chain attached to the stud in his earlobe.

“This is so cool!”

“I’ve got them on both sides.”

“I wanna get my ears pierced,” Yoosung said, his violet eyes glittering. Saeran wasn’t quite used to the totality of the color in Yoosung’s eyes. He stared at them a bit too long, then coughed and looked away.

“What was that sound?”

“The cough? It usually means you’re sick, but sometimes it can mean other things, like trying to get attention or something,” Saeran said, looking around the cave. It was pretty interesting, and had a purple sheen to it now. Wait, what?

“Are you… glowing?”

“Oh, hehe, yeah. I’ve got some bioluminescent stuff in my skin. Most of the time, I can control it myself, but when I get excited, it goes off by itself.”

“It’s cool. I guess you can find your way anywhere, since you can light up.”

“Yeah, I can.”

“So, what’s it like, living in the ocean?”

“It’s okay. I dunno. Most of the time, it seems like every day ends up being the same.”

“I feel that.”

“Really? Your world seems so neat. There must be a ton to do.”

“Yeah, if you can get to them. Most of the time, I just stay at home and play games until it’s time to eat or something.”

“What kinds of games?”

“Computer games. Whatever my brother isn’t playing, unless he’s being annoying.”

“Computer?”

“I guess you don’t have electricity underwater.”

“Not really, no. But we do have a lot of games we play.” Yoosung sighed. “I want to know more.”

“I could tell you more, but, my brother is probably looking for me by now,” Saeran said, pulling out his phone from its bag. Yoosung cocked his head at it. 

“This is a phone. It’s kind of like a computer, but it fries in water and stops working.” He opened his texts, seeing a number of them from his brother, wondering where he was and if he was safe. He sent Saeyoung a message, telling him he was alright.

I’ll meet you back at the boat, he texted.

Okay, was the reply.

“I gotta go. Do you know where the wreck is from here?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty close to here. Come on.” Yoosung slipped into the water, waiting for Saeran to join him. Saeran reattached his flippers, considered the mask for a moment, and grabbed it. Once he was in the water, they started swimming toward the boat. Saeran quickly realized that Yoosung was a much faster swimmer. On top of that, he didn’t have his tank anymore.

Yoosung looked back at him as he lagged behind.

“You’re not really built for swimming, are you?” he asked, his voice coming through the water fairly clearly. There was only a little distortion. Saeran shook his head, then realized he was running out of air. He rose to the surface, grabbing air.

“Not really,” he said when Yoosung joined him. “Humans aren’t built for much other than running around.”

“Humans?”

“That’s what we’re called.”

“Oh. We always just called you land mer.”

“Land mer? Like you’re a mermaid, so we’re land mer?”

“Yep. Except, I’m a merman.”

“Right.” They kept swimming at the surface. until they were within sight of the boat that Saeyoung had rented. Yoosung stopped.

“What is it?” Saeran asked.

“We’re… not supposed to go near the land mer --- I mean, humans.”

“Oh. I guess this is good-bye, then?”

“Yeah. But we can meet again some other time. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow sounds good. I don’t live far from here.”

“I live pretty far, but I can get here no problem.”

“Alright. See you then. Oh, right. Here, take my mask. The tank’s busted, so it’s not really helpful.”

“The tank thingy back there?”

“Yeah, it held extra air so I wouldn’t have to come up for long periods of time.”

“You humans are so interesting! I can’t wait for tomorrow. Bye!”

“Bye.” Yoosung slid beneath the waves, then turned and swam off. Saeran watched him for a bit, but soon lost track of him as he sped away.

The boat started moving toward him, so Saeran went back to swimming toward it, as well. Once it came close to him, he boarded, and was immediately hugged by his brother.

“You disappeared! Where did you go?”

“I popped my tank and almost drowned, but I got saved.”

“Really? By who?” Saeyoung searched his brother’s eyes

“By...” Saeran couldn’t just say he was saved by a merman, could he? “One of the other divers. They noticed I was in trouble, and found a place I could recover out of the way.”

“Did you get their name?”

“They were gone before I could.” Saeran sat down with Saeyoung, and the boat moved back to shore.

“Well, I didn’t find anything cool, but it was pretty neat getting to look around.”

“Yeah. It was a nice trip. Maybe we can go to the beach tomorrow,” Saeran said. His twin gasped.

“My brother, who never wants to go outside, has just asked me if he would like to go to the beach.” Saeran rolled his eyes, then met his brother’s eyes, raising an eyebrow. “What?”

“You’re so weird,” Saeran said. Funny, he thought, how Saeyoung was weird to him, and yet his entire world was weird to Yoosung. He wondered how Yoosung would handle his brother, if they ever met.

“Guilty as charged!” Saeyoung grinned. They packed up their gear, then ate Saeyoung’s lunch. Saeran had to admit, when his brother really tried, he could make good food. He just wished that his brother didn’t insist on stuffing sandwiches with Honey Buddha Chips.

And Ph D. Pepper doesn’t count as a sauce.

It didn’t take long to get to the seashore, less time than it took to eat everything, so the leftovers were packed away. The boat docked, and the Choi twins brought their stuff ashore.

“Ready to go home?”

“Yeah. I’ve had enough of the ocean for today.”

“You still want to go back tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” They got into the car, driving back to their apartment. On the way, Saeran saw a poster of an actor he knew.

“How’s Zen’s career doing?”

“He’s doing good, last I heard. He’s a major hit onstage. Some people say he can dance like no one else in the world.”

“Some people being you in the comments, right?”

“Right!”

“You know, you could put your name on some of those videos you take of him. Get some credit.”

“Nah, he’s much more suited to the spotlight than I am,” Saeyoung said. They had had this conversation before. Saeran knew that Saeyoung still had some tendencies from when he was a secret agent. Staying out of sight was one of them.

Saeyoung pulled into the parking lot attached to their apartment building. Saeran grabbed his stuff and the picnic basket and brought them up. Saeyoung followed along.

 

Yoosung reached his home close to sunset. He swam toward his shell, pushing the kelp aside and entering quietly. If he was lucky, no one noticed he was gone all day.

He was unlucky.

Zen was waiting for him in his parlor area. His arms were crossed, and his brow was furrowed. His tail was whapping impatiently.

“Where were you?” he asked angrily.

“Er… I was… exploring a wreck.”

“A wreck, huh? It better not have been the wreck with the land mer swimming around it.”

“No way! I wouldn’t go near them!”

“Really? Then what’s that?” Zen pointed to the mask in Yoosung’s hand. He swam up and tried to grab it. Yoosung kept it out of reach.

“It’s nothing! Just a thing I found.”

“Yoosung, how did you get this?”

“Some land mer must have dropped it at some point, like the other weird stuff I find sometimes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Zen glared at him, trying to weasel the truth out of him, but Yoosung stayed firm. Finally, Zen relented.

“Alright. Put it in your personal space, okay? I want to go out drinking tonight.”

“Okay!” Yoosung tossed it on his bed. He looked at the black box with the glass in it, and smiled. It was a phone, and he couldn’t figure out its purpose because, as Saeran said, it doesn’t work underwater. He supposed he would just have to get his hands on another one, or else ask Saeran to use his.

Swimming down to where Zen was, Yoosung pushed thoughts of Saeran out of his mind. Zen was pretty good at seeing through his lies. No doubt he already had. Yoosung just had to get him to believe that he hadn’t gone and saved a human --- a land mer, now that he was among his own --- and had instead merely observed from a distance. They swam off together toward the bar.

 

Zen had forgotten that Yoosung was a major lightweight. One drink down, and half the saltwater in the bar was Yoosung’s tears. Zen dragged him out pretty quick.

“I just… I feel so bad for eels. They don’t have any arms~!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s horrible,” Zen said, trying to pacify Yoosung.

“Do you think there are eel things on the surface? Maybe I can ask Saeran tomorrow...”

“Ask who?”

“Oh no.” Zen turned Yoosung to face him. He knew that the purple mer had gone off and found the land mer, but this made it seem like he had met one of them. Yoosung looked scared. Meeting confirmed.

“Yoosung, what did you do?”

“I...I...” Yoosung started crying harder. “I’m sorry!” Zen facepalmed. He brought Yoosung home, then sat him down.

“Yoosung, if you met a human, it’s okay. It happens. Most humans are smart enough to keep this sort of meeting to themselves. It’s… kind of a strange thing for them that we even exist. Don’t worry.”

“Okay. I trust you Zen…”

They stayed there for awhile longer, just chatting as old friends do, and the alcohol worked its way out of Yoosung’s system. Mers recover faster from drunkenness. As he sobered up, Yoosung suddenly realized something. He looked at Zen, suspicion clouding his face.

“Zen.”

“Yeah?”

“I have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

“How do you know that the land mer call themselves humans?” Zen froze, realizing that he was in hot water.

“Uhh. I met one a long time ago,” he said.

“Yeah? Who?”

“Guy called himself Seven Zero Seven.”

“Really? Weird.” Yoosung leaned back, regarding his friend in a new light. Maybe Saeran would know who this ‘Seven Zero Seven’ was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahahaha my wisdom teeth are gone


	3. Chapter 3

Saeran looked around the beach. It wasn’t busy today, since it was kind of cold. He didn’t mind the cold. The clouds scudding overhead were enough to make him happy as they shifted and changed above him. Saeyoung was sitting in a beach chair he owned, chilling with a drink in his hand. It was a brown color, instead of pink or yellow or something.

Even at the beach, his brother was drinking Ph D. Pepper.

Saeran rolled his eyes, and looked out to the ocean again. It wasn’t very still, so he had trouble seeing if anyone was out there. He could see the usual humans paddling about in the shallows. He grabbed a pair of binoculars he had brought, and scanned the ocean a bit farther out.

Then he saw Yoosung, who had poked his head above water. As soon as he did, Saeran got up.

“I’m gonna go for a walk,” he said to Saeyoung.

“Alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Bring back a shell.” And that was that. Saeyoung trusted him not to run off, at least. Saeran went down to the shore where the sand was wet and easier to walk in, watching Yoosung slowly scan the beach. Once the mer’s head was turned toward him, Saeran waved to catch his attention. He reached the water, and turned as Yoosung did. They moved parallel to each other until they reached some rocks at the far end of the beach.

Saeran passed some young kids. One of them was a little girl with a mermaid doll, making it swim around. It looked way too human to be an actual mermaid. Yoosung hardly looked human, himself.

He climbed up onto the rocks, carefully approaching the waterline at a point that the beach couldn’t see. Once he reached it, Yoosung popped up.

“Hey! I’m glad you came,” he said. Saeran sat down. There was still a foot or so where the rock sloped sharply into the water, so Saeran was a ways above Yoosung.

“Yeah, I’m glad my brother was willing to take me here.” He looked over to where Saeyoung was relaxing. He knew that his brother was watching him. Yoosung put his hands --- fins? --- on the rocks to boost himself up so he could see a bit.

“Which one’s your brother?”

“The one with red hair under the red umbrella.”

“Oh, I see him!” Yoosung ducked back down, leaving wet hand fin prints on the rocks.

“Yeah. He’s okay.” Saeran pulled his legs into a crossed position, leaning over. He could see Yoosung’s tail moving lazily, keeping him in place. It was mesmerizing. He wondered vaguely if part of why sailors were so entranced by mermaids was because they were so beautiful…

“Whatcha looking at?” Yoosung asked.

“Uh. Sorry,” Saeran said automatically.

“For what?” Yoosung cocked his head to the side. Saeran couldn’t help but find the gesture cute.

“For staring.”

“At my tail?”

“Yeah.” Saeran felt his ears start heating up. Yoosung lifted his tail out of the water a bit.

“It’s not the best looking tail, but it is pretty decent, yeah?”

“Yeah, it is.” Saeran wasn’t really a good judge of what tails look like, or if they look nice or not, but Yoosung’s tail wasn’t a horribly mangled mess of scales, so that was good. Right? “You have nice scales.”

That caused Yoosung to blush. Hard. His eyes got wide and his face got really red, ear fins fluttering.

“Th-th-thank you,” he managed. The mer looked down, trying to cover his face with his hand. It was more successful for him than it was for a human, since he had the webbing. Saeran could still kind of see the blush through the webbing, though.

“Did I say something wrong?” Saeran asked.

“N-no. It’s just… mers usually say that to flirt...” Yoosung trailed off. Saeran sucked in a breath as realization settled in. Of course he made his new friend uncomfortable. It always happened, even with Sayoung, at times.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“No one’s ever said it to me before. Thank you.”

“Thank you…?” Saeran repeated lamely. It took a moment for the words to enter his mind properly. “You’re welcome.” Yoosung’s fins fluttered again. He ducked under the water for a couple minutes, staying in sight. Saeran watched the bright purple of his tail flick about in agitation as Yoosung swam in circles. He chuckled.

Yoosung came back, noticeably less red than before.

“I was talking to one of my friends, and he told that he’s met a human before. I was wondering if you might know them?”

“Probably not. What’s their name?” Yoosung seemed a bit deflated.

“He just called himself Seven Zero Seven.”

“Oh my god.” Yeah, Saeran knew that person really well. They had been close for years. He groaned internally and looked over to his brother’s setup.

“Do you know him?”

“Yeah. That’s my brother’s code name.”

“Your brother?” Yoosung was impressed.

“Why did it have to be him?” Saeran muttered, clutching his head. He pulled his hands down his face, looking to the sky for mercy.

“What’s the matter?”

“He’s really obnoxious at the best of times.”

“I see.”

“Are you talking about me, little brother?” Saeyoung asked, coming up behind him. Yoosung ducked below the water, clinging to the rocks and slowly moving away.

“What the fuck!?” Saeran screeched. Saeyoung sat down next to him, resting his arm on his knee and letting his other leg fall as he supported himself.

“Did you make a friend?”

“No, I didn’t.” Saeran rolled his eyes, looking away.

“Yes you did~ Who is it?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“It is my business. I’m responsible for you. What if you fall into a bad crowd?”

“Like I did in high school?”

“Exactly! I can’t let my baby brother get hurt.” Saeyoung was pouting when Saeran looked back at him disparagingly. He finally sighed, figuring that if Yoosung wasn’t lying, then Saeyoung already knew about merpeople. He dipped a hand into the water, waving it back and forth quickly.

“You can come out. It’s safe.” Yoosung appeared a couple moments later, poking his eyes above the water.

“So you’ve discovered them?” Saeyoung asked. His usual joking manner had disappeared. Saeran glanced at him, seeing the solemn look in his eyes, then looked back at Yoosung, who had brought his head out of the water.

“Yeah.” Saeran didn’t elaborate. Saeyoung hadn’t asked.

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

“Is Saeran in trouble?” Yoosung asked, worried. Saeyoung took a deep breath, rubbing his face and knocking his glasses out of place. He fixed them.

“No, he’s not in trouble. But Saeran, you can’t tell anyone about this. Okay?”

“Damn. Guess I’d better tell all my friends to keep it a secret,” Saeran replied sarcastically. He quirked an eyebrow, smirking. Saeyoung returned his smirk. They both knew that neither would say anything about this. It was the fun part of being a twin.

“You two look the same,” Yoosung said.

“That’s because we’re twins! Born at the same time, though I came out a bit before Saeran.”

“Whoa! That’s so cool!” Yoosung’s fins opened a bit. Saeran smiled slightly.

“Yep,” Saeyoung said. He grinned.

“Saeyoung got all of the stupidity, leaving me with the smarts.”

“Hey!” Yoosung laughed. The twins looked at him. 

“I guess siblings don’t change, huh?” the mer said, smiling. Saeran edged a little closer to the water.

“Guess not. You have a sibling?” Saeran asked.

“Yep. I’ve got an older sister. She used to pick on me when I was younger, and it always made me mad. We’re pretty close, now, though.”

“Sweet. Where’d you get the necklace?” Saeyoung asked, raising an eyebrow. Saeran looked closer at the necklace in question. It was a string of pearls with a black star in the middle, edged in gold. Yoosung pulled it out of the water.

“My friend, Zen, gave it to me a couple years ago. He said that it would bring me good luck.”

“Your name wouldn’t happen to be Yoosung, would it?” Saeyoung asked. Saeran looked at him in surprise. He turned his body a bit to see Saeyoung better, sensing an explanation on the way.

“It is! How did you know?”

“Zen’s the mer I met when I found out you guys exist.” Saeran thought back, trying to figure out when the two had met.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I helped him out, and he asked me if I could get him a necklace like that for his friend, Yoosung. So I ordered it and gave it to him.” Ah. That was a couple summers ago, when Saeyoung said he had a friend who wanted to get into show business. But, that meant that he knew Zen, too. Saeran pulled his phone out, looking the name up on youtube. Sure enough, Zen had legs in a music video he’d made with Saeyoung. Saeran put his phone away.

“That’s really weird. He told me that he had met someone who gave it to him, and that he thought I should have it. I didn’t realize that he had met a human.” Yoosung looked at the pendant, stroking it fondly. Saeran leaned in a bit, trying to get a closer look. Yoosung held it out for him, grinning. As Saeran reached down to touch it, he lost his balance.

The water was cold, but the bottom wasn’t far. He saw a shell, and grabbed it before swimming back up to the surface. Yoosung was right next to him the whole five feet he had to swim up.

“Saeran! Are you okay?” Saeyoung asked as Saeran shook water out of his face. Saeran handed his brother the shell.

“I’m fine.” He wouldn’t be able to climb up the rock so easily, but that didn’t stop him from trying. If he could make it over a tall wooden fence when he was younger, he could make it up a fucking rock. He set his hands on it, kicking and climbing at the same time until he got a foot on. He kept his momentum moving forward, making it up the steep slope.

“It’s too bad you can’t just stay in the water,” Yoosung said.

“Yeah,” Saeran said. He felt his brother get an idea, an evil idea.

“Hey, Yoosung,” Saeyoung said. “You’ve got nice scales.” And off went Yoosung’s blood, into his cheeks. Saeran facepalmed.

“Really?”

Saeyoung started laughing. “It’s hilarious.”

“It’s nice that you both think that,” Yoosung muttered.

“What? Saeran, are you attracted to fish?”

“I didn’t realize it was flirty.” Yoosung looked up at the sun. It was about halfway down the sky.

“I’ve gotta go home, now. I’ll see you, sometime.”

“How am I supposed to reach you?” Saeran asked. Yoosung thought hard, but couldn’t come up with anything. Meanwhile, Saeyoung took the shell Saeran had given him earlier as he went to another spot in the rocks. He put the shell there, where it wouldn’t be disturbed.

“Yoosung, if you remove this shell, it means you’re in the area. Okay? We live close by, so Saeran can come by and check every day.”

“Okay!” Yoosung called. He motioned Saeran closer. Saeran leaned toward him, making sure to keep his balance this time. Yoosung moved swiftly up the rocks, planting a quick kiss on Saeran’s lips. It still surprised Saeran. “I’ll see you soon.” Saeyoung sat down again. Yoosung blew a kiss to him, too, then disappeared beneath the waves.

“Don’t you just love how mers work?” Saeyoung asked. Saeran nodded. Yoosung’s lips were soft. He needed to get over kisses being romantic if he was going to keep himself from getting attracted to a fish.

He had a feeling that he’d already failed.

“It’s hard not to be attracted to them,” Saeyoung continued. “When I met Zen and he kissed me, I jumped on the chance. It freaked him out. He said that kissing was an action of affection, not passion.”

“It’s weird,” Saeran added. He wasn’t adverse to the idea of kissing being a platonic thing. God knew he hadn’t gotten a lot of affection when he was younger. They moved off the rocks, going back to the beach and packing their stuff.

Saeran glanced over at Saeyoung as they were driving back, wondering how to approach the topic of Zen.

“So… Zen,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“If he’s a mer, why does he have legs in his music video?” Saeyoung paused, hands frozen on the wheel.

“Uh. Special effects?” he lied. Saeran gave him a withering glance. Saeyoung sighed, flexing his hands.

“We found a way to make him human for twenty four hours at a time. If he doesn’t get back into the ocean soon after, he starts getting sick.”

“I see. So he shows up for performances?”

“And rehearsals.”

“Right.” Saeran looked out the window at the world around him, trying to memorize as many details as he could to tell Yoosung about. “Would it be possible to have the same thing for Yoosung? So he can get to know our world.”

“He curious about it?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll see what I can do. It’s gonna take some work.”

“Figures.”

 

“Zen!” Yoosung called. He yelped as he rammed into the wall of his friend’s shell. “Zen, are you home?”

“Yeah, I’m home.” Zen pushed his kelp curtain aside. “What is it?”

“I met Seven today.”

“You did what!? Get inside.” Yoosung swam quickly past Zen as the older mer moved out of the way. They swam into the living space.

“Why would you do something so stupid?”

“Because I had already promised Saeran that I would go to meet him today. Apparently they’re brothers.”

“Of course, they are.” Zen sank onto a clam shell. Yoosung settled next to him. “Alright, well, I can’t stop you from doing your own thing. Just… promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I promise.”

“Alright. You’re like a little brother, you know? I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Zen smiled wanly at Yoosung. Yoosung smiled back.

“Thanks, Zen.” They kissed, and Yoosung swam back to his shell. It felt different with Saeran. Probably because he was human.

On the way home, Yoosung passed Jaehee.

“Hey, Jaehee. How are you?”

“I’m well, Yoosung. How about you?”

“I’m doing great! Where you off to?”

“I’m going to visit a friend.”

“Cool. See you. Have fun!” Yoosung said.

“You too, Yoosung,” Jaehee returned. They parted ways. Yoosung wondered who her friend was, but didn’t bother to think about it too much. It wasn’t that much of a concern of his, anyway. He reached his shell, popping in for a moment before heading out for dinner.

The hunting grounds were well populated when he arrived, as mers swam in and out, grabbing a fish or two before heading off to whatever it was that they were doing. Yoosung drifted in, looking around for something to eat. He caught sight of a nice plump fish and arced after it. It didn’t know it was being hunted until the last moment.

It was tasty.

Yoosung went out, swimming around town and visiting with people as he went, not really sure what to do. Normally, he’d meet up with some friends and they would play together, but the excitement of the past couple days had made that seem kinda boring. Oh, well. He figured it would still be fun, and headed off to where his friends were hanging out.

 

“Hello? Oh, Saeyoung. It’s nice to hear from you. How have you been?” Jumin asked. “You need me to perform the spell again? Alright. I’ll have my yacht prepared for this weekend. Have you heard from Jaehee? I see. Well, I hope she’s doing well. You don’t have to pass that along. Good bye, Saeyoung.” Jumin hung up the phone, then looked over at his assistant. This one wasn’t as good as Jaehee had been, but after she’d quit, he had learned that it was better to give his assistant some leeway.

“Assistant Kim.”

“Yes, Mr. Han?”

“What’s my schedule for this weekend?”

“You have a meeting with the board in the morning, and two meetings in the afternoon.”

“Clear it.”

“Sir?”

“Clear the day.”

“…yes, sir.” His assistant moved to do so, and Jumin returned to work. He wondered who Saeyoung needed the spell for, this time. It had been Zen, at first, and Jaehee had become enamored with his work. He didn’t understand the appeal, himself. Then, Jaehee had decided to join Zen under the sea. She came up, sometimes, but not often.

Who had Saeyoung dragged into this mess, this time?

The first time he had even heard of the spell was when his childhood friend, V, told him that there was a way for humans to become merpeople, and for mers to become human. Jumin had wondered why that was even relevant.

He soon learned about and met Rika, a young mermaid from a city far beneath the surface, where the light doesn’t shine. Evidently, V had fallen for her, and wanted them to be together, no matter which side of the surface they were on. She had agreed with that, so Jumin found an old book on black magic and started practicing.

When he felt confident in his skills, he approached them, telling them that he could do it. He made Rika into a human, first. Then, when V was ready to visit her home, Jumin performed another spell to make him a mer.

It was an interesting experience.

Rika had disappeared, at some point. Jumin was never quite sure why, and V didn’t like to talk about it. The corporate heir often found V staring out at the ocean. It seemed he hadn’t gotten over Rika, even after all this time.

When Jumin returned home, he pulled out the magic book, flipping to the bookmarked pages that described the spells in question. He traced the outline of the mer becoming human, feeling the power still in the pages. Then he closed it and put it back on the shelf.

He found Elizabeth the 3rd wandering around near her food dish, and fed her, scratching her head as she ate. Rika had brought her to his home, one day, saying that she had been wandering around, and needed a good home. Jumin had accepted her.

She was the most precious thing he owned, and he loved her dearly.

Come to think of it, Seven seemed to be in love with Zen, at the time that they decided to ask him for help. Had he found a new flame?

Figures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so we've got some stuff on how all this happened. yay.
> 
> comment and tell me what you think ^^


	4. Chapter 4

Saeran sat down on the rocks, waiting for Yoosung to appear. The shell was missing, which meant he was in the area. In the meantime, he watched the waves moving, getting bigger as they came to shore, and crashing up against the rocks. There wasn’t a lot of wind, and the tide was low, so the waves didn’t end up getting too high.

He felt someone sit down next to him, but didn’t bother turning to look. It was probably Saeyoung, and if not, then he would just chase them off in a moment. The stranger decided that they weren’t going to wait for him to notice. They edged their way into his vision. Saeran turned to give them a death glare.

“Yoosung!?” Saeran’s glare was instantly halted. He stared at Yoosung’s fully violet eyes, amazed that he had managed to get himself to this point.

“Surprise! I figured out how to get up the rocks.” Yoosung was sitting on his butt. Or his dorsal side? Saeran wasn’t sure. His tail flipped lazily in the water.

“Yeah, you did. How?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Yoosung said, smiling. He pointed behind him to a wet trail that extended across the rocks, past where Saeran could see. “There’s a spot over there where the rocks don’t rise so sharply, so I was able to get up from there. It’s hard being on land without legs, huh?”

“I guess so. It’s harder to swim with legs than a fish tail,” Saeran said. Yoosung looked out over the ocean, eyes half-lidded. He closed them as the breeze came in and leaned into it. Saeran watched his face. It was relaxed.

“Is this what’s it like on the surface every day?” Yoosung asked.

“Sort of. On the days I can come to the beach, I usually sit somewhere and just listen to the ocean.” Saeran closed his eyes. The waves whooshed in, a calm, constant sound that took all of his troubles away. Opening his eyes, he breathed as the waves came in, breathing out again when they hit the rocks until the next wave came in.

“It’s steady here,” Saeran said.

“Do you like to watch the ocean often?”

“Sometimes. I like watching the clouds more. They’re a constant, but they change, too.”

“I see. They look so fluffy.”

“They are today.” The two of them sat side by side, watching the clouds and listening to the ocean, enjoying the moment together. Yoosung shifted a bit. He brought his tail around behind him, laying down on the rocks and letting his fins spring up. Saeran supposed that sitting on them like that was supremely uncomfortable.

“If you had legs, it would be easier to sit,” Saeran said tentatively. This was the topic he wanted to broach, and Yoosung’s discomfort at being on land presented an excellent opportunity.

“That’s true, but it can’t happen.”

“Well…”

“Do you know a way?” Yoosung asked, perking up. His fins opened a bit, and he lifted himself into a seal pose.

“Kind of. Saeyoung does. Seems he’s done this before, so he’s getting things set up. We just need you to want to walk on land--”

“Yes! This is gonna be so cool! I finally get to see your world! How do we do it? When?”

“I don’t know, but soon. We need to teach you some things, first.”

“Really? Like what?”

“How to read and write in our language, telling time and shit. Stuff that anyone should know.”

“Oh. That sounds like a lot. When do we start?” Yoosung asked. He cocked his head to the side in that cute way of his.

“We could start now. I have my phone, so we can work on time and numbers.” Saeran pulled his phone out, and pulled up the clock. He showed it to Yoosung. Yoosung stared at the numbers, then at Saeran, and at the numbers again.

“I think I’ve seen some of these before. On ships and stuff.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Sometimes they had these marks on them,” Yoosung said, as Saeran looked at his phone. He opened the memo pad on it, typing the numbers out and putting slashes next to them. Saeyoung said that this was the method he used to teach his own mer friend about the numbering system.

“Can you see the slashes next to the symbols?” Saeran asked.

“Yeah.”

“Each symbol has a different value, which is represented here by the number of slashes. The first is ‘one.’ The second is ‘two.’” He continued introducing Yoosung to the numbering system, hoping that it would stick easily. Yoosung learned pretty quickly. Saeran started holding up his fingers, urging Yoosung to tell him how many there were. After a few mistakes, Yoosung got the hang of it.

“What’s next?”

“Learning how to read, but I didn’t bring any paper to practice with,” Saeran said.

“Reading sounds fun. Is there a way to read on your phone?”

“Yes…” Saeran opened the internet, thankful that he still got a signal this far out. He started searching for children’s books he could read online. Yoosung watched as he typed in his search.

“More symbols?”

“Yeah. Korean has a lot of words, but they’re made from the same bunch of symbols. Like this one? This is ieng. It shows up a lot.” Saeran pointed to a circular symbol.

“Ieng,” Yoosung repeated. Saeran nodded.

“Free chil-dren’s books on-line,” Saeran said slowly, as he typed. He got some results, tapping on the first one to see if it was any good. It looked like the whole book, and it was supposed to be for a learning reader, which made it even more perfect. He handed the phone to Yoosung, who struggled a bit to hold it in his webbed hands.

Once he got a hold on the phone, Yoosung started focusing on the words themselves. Saeran sat next to him, reading most of it out loud, and pointing to the words with his finger so Yoosung could follow along. It was a fun time. Before he knew it, Saeyoung was on his other, which meant it was time to go home.

“Can we do this again soon?”

“Better,” Saeyoung said. “We’ve gotten just about everything prepared, which means that by this time next week, we’ll be able to get you a pair of legs.”

“Sweet!” Yoosung said. He grinned, but it fell a moment later. “What’s a week?”

“Seven days from now,” Saeran said. He had forgotten that this lesson had started with time so that Yoosung would know when to come back. Oops. Oh, well. He knew now.

“A week is seven days?”

“Yep. See you in seven days, Yoosung,” Saeyoung said, pulling his brother off the rocks. Yoosung slid toward the ocean, eventually falling in. “Oh, right. You have to give something up that’s a part of yourself in order to make the spell work. To get legs, you have to give something in return.”

“Okay, I’ll think of something. See you then,” Yoosung said. He put the shell back. Saeran watched him swim away, turning to leave with his brother.

 

Jumin looked at the ingredients for the spell that had already been gathered. He didn’t usually have them on-hand. Trying to keep algae fresh for an indeterminate amount of time was too hard to bother with. Keeping it fresh for a week was easy. All he needed was something from the mer himself, and everything would be complete.

He looked into his spell book, repeating the words silently to himself. In order to gain legs, something must be given up. For Rika, it had been her ability to smell. She said that it was okay if she didn’t smell anything. For Jihyun, it had been his sight. All he needed was to know where she was, and mers had better senses than most as far as navigating in places that didn’t necessarily have good visibility.

Zen had given up his sense of taste. When Jaehee left… she had given up touch. Jumin wondered what Yoosung would be willing to part with, in order to join the surface world. It didn’t matter. Yoosung would choose something, and that would be that.

He pulled out some chalk that was supposed to be magic. It would help with the spell. It did the last four times.

 

Yoosung couldn’t believe it! He was going to be able to walk on land! For real! His swim back home was sped along by absolute excitement. This was going to be the best thing ever. He could walk and talk with Saeran, get to know his world, and everything in it.

He had to give something up, first. He wondered what he would be willing to sacrifice.

Maybe his sight? No, then he couldn’t see everything that he was going to experience. Or his hearing. But that would mean he couldn’t hear things. Yoosung kept thinking, wondering what he had that he could give up. He seemed so attached to everything already.

Could he give up sight in one eye? That seemed plausible, and it wouldn’t completely wreck him.

Yeah. One eye would be perfect.

He entered his shell, uncertain of how to spend the next week without screaming from impatience. He swam from one area to the next, rearranging everything over and over again the first day. He went out and visited all of his friends for the next two.

He practiced his numbers and tried to remember the characters Saeran had read to him, drawing them in the sand out where mers usually weren’t.

Every day passed by at a sea cucumber’s pace. Yoosung spent almost an entire day watching a sea cucumber crawl leisurely across the ocean floor. Eventually, after what felt like… well, whatever the humans used to measure a really long time --- forever? --- a week had passed. Yoosung swam excitedly to the surface, to where they usually met.

He pulled the shell from its place, dropping it in the sand below, then swam impatiently around the rocks.

“Yoosung!” he heard from above. It was Saeran. He popped his head out of the water excitedly.

“We have the car on the beach to get you to Jumin. Grab hold,” Saeran said, extending a hand. Saeyoung was next to him, doing the same. Yoosung grabbed onto them, kicking hard to help with the lifting. Once they got him on the rocks, Saeran took him under the arms as Saeyoung lifted his tail. Yoosung swayed back and forth as they carried him carefully, trying not to slip.

They reached the truck without any trouble. Yoosung looked around as they went, amazed at the world around him. The sky was really blue, in a different way from the ocean. Under the sea, things were also kind of green, but the sky was perfectly blue. The sand was a pale yellow, here. It was like things were… purer up here. It was strange. Yoosung liked it.

“Alright,” Saeyoung said, as Saeran lifted Yoosung further up. They pushed him into a strange creature, most likely the “truck” they had mentioned, positioning him into a sitting position like they used. Saeran pulled a weird strap thing from its inner wall, pushing into a slot on the other side of Yoosung.

“This is a seatbelt. It keeps you from rocketing forward.” Saeran stood back, and closed a solid looking flap. He got into the truck, sitting in front of Yoosung. Saeyoung sat next to Saeran, in front of a circular thing that looked like what some of the wooden ships had.

“What about that thing?”

“It’s a steering wheel. It lets me control the car,” Saeyoung said.

“And this is a car? What does it eat?”

“Oil. I have to fill the tank every once in awhile to keep it moving. The car isn’t actually alive, but it does tend to act like it is.”

“It’s not!?”

“Nope. Neither are ships.”

“Then how…?” Yoosung felt his entire world get flip-turned upside down. Ships aren’t actually alive. But how did they swim?

“Humans make things go. Or at least, we make things that are supposed to move move. Things that aren’t supposed to move don’t move, and it’s not a good thing when they do,” Saeyoung continued.

“Like houses. Houses don’t move unless something goes wrong.”

“Right. Or if they’re built to be moved.”

“This is so weird...” Yoosung breathed. He sat back, letting the twins tell him about roads made of melted and rehardened rocks; houses made from sand, wood, and glass; and airplanes, massive metal birds that were able to fly. He learned what metal was, and that the car was made from it.

There was so much. At some point, Saeran remembered that he still needed to learn to read, so they pulled over, and Saeran switched seats to be next to Yoosung. He had some actual books to read aloud, and pulled one out. It was a fairy tale, one that he and Saeyoung had enjoyed when they were younger. It was one of few good memories.

He started reading it, pointing to the words as he went, until Yoosung asked if he could try. He stumbled a lot, and wasn’t too good with connecting the words to his speech, but the car ride was long enough for him to get an idea of how it worked.

They arrived at Jumin’s penthouse. Saeyoung pulled the car in and called Jumin to make sure he was ready for them. Once they got the okay, the twins lifted Yoosung into a wheelchair they had stowed in the back, and threw a blanket over his tail. Saeran put a weird thing over his eyes, and Saeyoung plopped another weird, really floppy, thing on his head.

“Sunglasses and a hat, so no one gets freaked out by the finny bug-eyed dude.”

“Sorry you have to spend so long sitting on your fins,” Saeran said.

“It’s worth it,” Yoosung replied. They wheeled him into the building, and entered the elevator. Saeyoung pressed the button for the penthouse, once it was unlocked by Jumin.

“Whoa!” Yoosung yelped, as the elevator car started moving. He looked around.

“The elevator is moving. We’re gonna come out on the top floor,” Saeyoung said. Saeran placed a hand reassuringly on Yoosung’s shoulder. Yoosung looked around him as they rose up. There were lights around the elevator, illuminating it. He had been told what lights were. These ones were yellow. There were other lights outside that were red, yellow, and green. Yoosung wondered how they got to be different colors.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened by themselves. It was cool to watch. Yoosung was wheeled out into what appeared to be the living area.

“Welcome to Jumin’s penthouse. This is the living room.” Room. So that’s what the humans called it. Yoosung looked around, seeing lots of stuff made for humans and their ability to sit. It was strange, but it made sense, he supposed. Even so…

“What’s up with your obsession with sitting?”

“We don’t like moving around much,” Saeran said.

“Truth,” Saeyoung added. Yoosung raised an eyebrow.

“Oh. You can take the hat and glasses off, now.”

“Thanks.” Yoosung pulled the hat off, shaking his head to let his hair fluff out. It wasn’t curly, now that he was above land. It lost its style, and he kind of missed it. Oh, well. Saeran moved him further into the penthouse, down a hallway and into another room.

“Here we are. Do you know what you’re going to sacrifice?” Saeran asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got it figured out.”

“Good,” said a strange man. He was tall, taller than either Saeran or Saeyoung, and certainly taller than Yoosung himself. He carried himself with prestige, like the world was a stepping stone to greater things, and yet, he was also empty of emotions. Yoosung found himself intimidated by this mam.

“My name is Jumin Han. It’s a pleasure to meet you...”

“Yoosung.”

“Yoosung.”

“Pleasure to meet you, too, Jumin.” Yoosung was pulled out of the chair, and set down in front of Jumin. He started getting nervous, and played with the star pendant on his necklace. He watched as Jumin started the spell, chanting over a bottle of weird stuff that honestly smelled horrible.

Smoke rose from the bottle, spilling out in tendrils, lacing around Yoosung and enveloping him completely. He watched the tendrils become a solid mass.

“Focus on what you want to lose,” Jumin said. Yoosung focused on his left eye, deciding that that was going to be the one he would lose. The mist touched it. He could feel it settle on him, and then he screamed. There was a burning sensation over his eye. All Yoosung could feel was the burning. All he could see was the mist. He vaguely heard Jumin chanting in the background.

The burning sensation stopped, and Yoosung was able to breathe for a moment. Then a new torment arrived. It felt like his scales were being ripped out. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel it. He screamed nonstop, until he felt his tail get split in half.

He couldn’t feel the fin, anymore.

Yoosung fainted.

 

Saeran watched with bated breath as the mist had covered Yoosung. He bit his lip when he heard the first scream. When it stopped, he thought it was over, until there was another. This time, it refused to end until it suddenly did. He tried to stop the spell.

“No. If you interfere now, something will go wrong,” Saeyoung said.

“But--”

“I know. It’s hard to watch. But you have to let it happen. Okay?”

“Okay.” Saeran trusted his brother enough for this. They watched the mist shift and undulate, no sound coming from within it. Eventually, it cleared enough for them to see the results of the spell.

Yoosung definitely had legs, now. The tail had disappeared completely, leaving no trace of its having ever existed. The dorsal fin was gone, too. Saeran averted his eyes from their travel toward Yoosung’s hands. The webbing that had been there before was gone. He noticed that the fingers had gotten a tiny bit shorter.

“We should get a blanket on him,” Saeyoung said. Saeran grabbed the blanket from the chair, tossing it over Yoosung’s hips. He wrapped it properly, then picked the boy up off the ground. Yoosung’s star necklace had stayed, the only thing left to speak of his being a mer. Even then, it was a stretch. The necklace had been ordered from the internet, after all, and made by humans.

Saeran didn’t know what to do, now that he had Yoosung in his arms.

“This way. I have a spare room he can stay in, for now.” Jumin led the way down the hall a little further, bringing them into a spare bedroom. Saeran set Yoosung on the bed, tucking him in. Yoosung rolled onto his side, pulling the blanket in toward his neck, and curled into himself.

He looked like a child. Saeran stroked his hair, then left him alone.

“What do we do now?”

“Now, we wait for him to wake up.” They sat together in the living room, waiting.

 

Yoosung opened his eyes. He lifted himself off the strange fluffy bed that he was on. There was a strange layer over him that was also fluffy. He pulled at it to investigate, and noticed his hand.

No webbing. There was absolutely no webbing on his hand.

He twisted his hand this way and that, poked at the space between his fingers. He touched his fins, and found the adorable rounded ears like what Saeran had. His teeth were no longer the sharp tearing protrusions he was used to. Instead, they were flat. Some of them were rounder than others.

Yoosung realized that the most important thing about this transformation was yet to be discovered. He pulled the blanket up, and looked at his new legs.

They looked like sticks. When he bent them, they were more like two sticks stacked on top of each other. He spent a few minutes just bending them back and forth, moving the foot joint around and around, wiggling his toes. His fingers and toes had a weird hard substance on them, now, that hadn’t been there before. There were also minuscule hairs on his toes.

His legs had hair on them, and so did his arms and stomach. Hair was everywhere, suddenly. It was certainly a change from the scales he’d had before.

And… did humans really carry their reproductive systems outside their bodies? That just seemed dangerous. Yoosung shrugged. Maybe he could ask Saeran about it later.

Saeran! Yoosung threw himself out of bed, landing mercifully on shaky legs. He managed to take a few steps forward, getting through the door and out to the hall. He hit the wall hard and slid down, unsure of how to get his legs under him. He’d seen Saeran do this, of course. Yoosung pulled his legs into the crossed position Saeran often sat in, then bent one so that it was more vertical. He pushed on it as Saeran came flying around the corner.

“Yoosung!”

“Saeran,” Yoosung said. He managed to get the leg to lift him, making his other leg also support his weight. He stood uneasily. After the excitement of meeting with Saeran again had practically had him launching himself across the room, Yoosung wasn’t sure how to proceed with his legs. How does one use them casually?

“Are you okay?” Saeran asked, holding Yoosung by the shoulders.

“I’m fine. Why is it that you don’t tuck your reproductive organs away?” Yoosung asked. It was really weird to him.

“Uh.” Saeran froze where he was. Yoosung cocked his head to the side, looking at him inquisitively as Saeran’s mouth opened and closed like he was trying to breathe.

“Saeran, you don’t have gills. Trying to gulp isn’t going to help,” Yoosung said, chuckling.

“We should get you some clothes,” Saeran finally said. He pushed Yoosung back into the room, careful to make sure the fresh human was able to keep himself up on the way there. Getting Yoosung sat on the bed, Saeran raided the nearby closet for clothing. Jumin walked in then, carrying a fresh suit.

“I figured this would work for now, until we can get something else for him.”

“Your stuff is way too big. Hang on, Saeyoung brought a pair of shorts and a shirt,” Saeran said, leaving the room.

“He left,” Yoosung said. “He froze after I asked him about the reproductive organs.”

“What about them?” Jumin asked. He simply raised an eyebrow, apparently unfazed by the question. The older man set the suit he’d been carrying down on the bed, then went to lean against the wall instead of sitting. So humans liked lots of different positions? That made more sense than a freaky obsession with putting their butts on things.

“Why are they on the outside of the body?”

“If they were inside, they would get too hot and stop working properly. As a fish, your body was a bit colder. Now, it’s warmer than it was, so the circumstances have changed.”

“I see.”

“Yes. It’s also considered impolite in society to walk around without clothes on,” Jumin said, smirking. Yoosung looked at the suit he was wearing, and the suit next to him. Saeran had left to get him clothes. He supposed they really were important. He nodded. It made sense to him.

“Human society is different from what I’m used to,” Yoosung said.

“It certainly is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoosung's learning how things work.


	5. Chapter 5

Saeran returned shortly after with clothes for Yoosung to put on. With some help to make sure he got it all on properly, Yoosung got himself dressed. He looked at himself in the mirror, impressed by how different he looked. His eyes weren’t as full as they used to be, but then, the sunlight didn’t threaten to blind so much, either. These were better suited, with the iris only being a part of the outer orb half.

His ears, too, were different. They didn’t have their fins, just the tiny shell style like Saeran. Even his hair had stopped its curling. Yoosung suspected that water wouldn’t make it curl again like it usually did.

At leas the clothes had oceanic colors. There was a blue jacket, and a white shirt with blue and green stripes. At the bottom of the shirt was a thick brown stripe that matched his new pants. The concept of clothing was completely alien to him, but that was okay.

He still had his necklace. Yoosung rubbed at the star, pushing its dull point into his webbing --- except that no longer existed. The point met open air.

Saeran was waiting outside, in the living room. Room was such a strange word, but it made sense. Humans were very weird. Yoosung turned to leave, caught again by his reflection and the utter lack of dorsal fins he had. He tried to flex them, could almost feel the spines rise and fall, but nothing moved. He shrugged.

Out in the living room, there were a few people. Saeran was there, obviously. Saeyoung was sitting next to him, and Jumin had moved, as well. He was sitting with his sticks --- legs --- crossed over each other. Legs weren’t so good for swimming, but they clearly had their advantages.

“Hey,” Yoosung said, sitting down like he did on the rocks, jumping up as he crushed his semi-new parts. “Fuck!”

“You gotta keep your legs apart when you sit down,” Saeran said. Yoosung tried that, as the pain slowly subsided. He found that he was able to sit more comfortably.

“There’s always a trick to this, isn’t there?”

“Yep.”

“It gets easier as time goes on,” Saeyoung said. “Anyway, we need to set you up with some sort of documentation, which means learning to write, and picking a last name. Or you choose a whole new name.”

“Right. How does writing work?” Yoosung asked. Saeyoung pulled a strange rectangle out, setting it on the platform. He set a cylindrical thing next to it, then slid them both toward Yoosung, coming around to sit next to him.

“You take the pencil, like this,” he said, holding the cylinder thing. It was a pencil. “Then, you put it on the paper, and move it. It’ll leave marks behind. You move it in the shape of words, and they’re written on the page.” Saeyoung already had experience with teaching merpeople how to write, so Saeran left it to him.

Yoosung took the pencil in hand. It felt odd. He set it on the page, and moved it around, enjoying the feeling of it, and watched it leave a gray trail.

“Good, you’ve got the idea. Alright, let’s start from the beginning...” Saeyoung taught Yoosung a number of the hangul used in Korean, letting him practice writing each of them. Yoosung was a quick study, able to get the feel of each one in a few tries. Saeran watched him, impressed. He and Saeyoung were also quick learners, but even they hadn’t quite been this good.

Soon, however, the Choi twins had to go.

“You’re getting the hang of it. Jumin can show you how to put the hangul together into words. We’ll see you soon!”

“See you,” Yoosung said.

“Have fun,” Saeran told him. Yoosung smiled.

“You too.”

Jumin continued to teach him, and it was fun to learn. He was a different teacher from Saeyoung, much more strict and not as obviously enthusiastic, but Yoosung felt a small surge of pride whenever he was able to get Jumin to praise him.

It wasn’t as fun without Saeran around, either, but that was okay. He would see the gray haired human tomorrow. Yoosung decided that he would learn as much as he could today, so that when Saeran came back, he could show off his progress.

Jumin’s cat Elizabeth 3rd liked to snuggle up against him, or paw at him. Yoosung was a bit nervous with her there, but she was a nice presence, too. He liked it when she showed up.

He didn’t come back the next day. Jumin had to go to work, but Yoosung could take care of himself. After a brief introduction to cooking and safety, Yoosung was left to his own devices, which meant learning how to read, write, and work out numbers on his own. For hours. For exactly fourteen hours and thirty-three minutes. Yoosung made a lot of progress in that time, and had even heated up food to eat at times Jumin said were appropriate.

Jumin finally got home, immediately loosening his tie and pulling his jacket off. Yoosung looked up at him from the workbooks he had been tearing through.

“How has your studying been going?”

“Good. I made it through the books a couple times, and I think I can point out any time you show me.” Jumin seemed surprised by this. Yoosung cocked his head to the side.

“I had no idea you were so good,” Jumin said. “Most humans require weeks to learn this sort of thing.”

“Well, Saeran did help me some, beforehand, so it’s not like this is my first time encountering this sort of stuff.”

“Would you like some books to read? Having more complex sentences will help with your reading.”

“Yes, please!” Yoosung said excitedly. Then he paused for a moment. “When will Saeran be back?” he asked.

“I think Saeyoung said he just got a number of jobs to do, so it will be a few days. Plenty of time to perfect your skills,” Jumin said. Yoosung nodded glumly. He was so looking forward to seeing Saeran again. Oh, well. It was only a few days. Right?

It felt like forever. Yoosung read most of Jumin’s books, finding the romance novels interesting and enticing. They gave him a better understanding of what humans considered affectionate and sensual. Kisses fell under sensual. Hugs were more affectionate.

Yoosung realized that Saeran was probably reading his body language all wrong. He had no romantic interest in Saeran. They were friends, and that meant that hugs were the way to go. Yoosung didn’t really understand how hugs worked, though. Most of the time, merpeople just kissed. The idea of wrapping their arms around each other was different. Yoosung would have to give it a try.

Was he drifting? This was drifting, wasn’t it? This whole ‘becoming a human because you’re entranced by their world and want to experience it’ thing was drifting. Yoosung had been warned against this. Mers had had problems with the humans for centuries, both in the water and on land, and yet, here he was, drifting along like he’d been told not to. Oops.

Well, it had happened, and that was a fact.

Jumin had told him that baths would be best for him, until he could be in the ocean again. Apparently, since he had only sacrificed an eye, he had a total of twenty-four hours before he had to get into the ocean again. Once he was refreshed, he could return to land, but without that saltwater, he would start getting sick. It would only work for a week at a time.

Yoosung could feel it, as the sea slowly leached from his body over the course of the week. The time he spent in the salt bath helped. He started spending more and more time in the salt, since it was more comfortable. He brought his books in with him, taking care not to get them wet at all. Elizabeth followed him into the bathroom. She sat on the edge as he read to her and pet her.

 

Finally, Saeran returned with the car to take him to the ocean. He was giddy the whole way there.

“You seem excited,” Saeran commented.

“Yeah! I’ve been itching to get back to the sea,” Yoosung said. “Maybe it’s because I’m not totally used to being human?”

“Probably. We’ll be there soon. How’ve you been doing with your studies.”

“I’m doing really well,” Yoosung said. “I can read most of Jumin’s books no problem. Oh, and his romance novels taught me the difference between hugging and kissing, so I won’t kiss you, anymore.”

“I don’t really mind, if you do. It’s part of your culture,” Saeran said. “It was kind of awkward, though.”

“Yeah, I get that now. Don’t worry, if I make you uncomfortable, I’ll stop.”

“Okay.” Saeran pulled into the beach parking lot, and they hopped out. The two of them headed to the rocks where the two of them had usually talked. Yoosung jumped into the water when they arrived, breathing a sigh of relief. Saeran could see the outline of scales on his skin, looking as if they were cracked and dehydrated. It was definitely important to keep Yoosung properly hydrated, then. That meant weekly trips to the ocean. Saeran realized that that included winter. It would be cold, but necessary.

“Come on in! The water feels great!”

“Okay.” Saeran hopped into the water, sinking in with a plop next to Yoosung. Yoosung swam around excitedly. He looked at his legs, kicking them as he went, diving under the waves, trying to be the fish he was without much success. Saeran kicked around, too. He wasn’t really planning on swimming, but now he was. Yoosung was certainly good at convincing him to do things.

Believing in mermaids was the first thing. Coming back to meet him was the second, and then meeting him again after was another. Getting convinced that turning Yoosung into a human was on the list, as well as swimming, right now.

“It’s fun to swim,” Yoosung said. He laid back and closed his eyes, face relaxed. “God, I feel like I’m home again.”

Saeran watched as the scales became more prominent, and fins protruded slowly from his ears, reshaping them to what they were before. His tail coalesced, threatening to tear Yoosung’s shorts. Saeran pulled them off hurriedly so they wouldn’t get torn.

“What are you doing --- oh.” Yoosung watched his tail come back through, and looked at the webbing between his fingers. He looked at Saeran in surprise.

“I didn’t think it would turn you back like this.”

“Was the spell only able to last for a week?”

“I don’t think that was the problem. Hold on, let me call Jumin.” Saeran hopped out of the water and onto the rocks where his phone was sitting. He called Jumin.

“Hey, it’s Saeran. Yeah, we’re at the ocean. Yoosung turned back into a merman. Do you know why?… It’s supposed to happen? Oh, okay.” Yoosung cocked his head curiously as Saeran hung up.

“Jumin said that the ocean will turn you back into a mer, and since the spell’s effect isn’t powerful, you need to get into the ocean to let your body rest every week.”

“Oh, I see. Ah, now I’m wishing I had chosen to lose more, so I wouldn’t have to deal with this.”

“You did fine. Nothing is perfect. I mean, even if you’d given up more, it probably just means that you would have had to visit the ocean fewer times. At least this way, I can get out of the house every Saturday.” They laughed.

Yoosung drifted around with his tail flipping languidly along. He sank beneath the waves, inviting Saeran to swim with him again. Saeran fell beneath the waves, and opened his eyes. He gasped in surprise at Yoosung’s appearance, and immediately resurfaced.

“I-I didn’t notice,” Saeran started, trying to collect his thoughts.

“Saeran! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I… your eyes don’t look that shiny in the air.” They had practically been glowing. Saeran rubbed at his eyes carefully, trying to keep the seawater out.

“Really? I guess environment does kind of make a difference, huh?”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Anyway, I’m feeling more refreshed, now. What should we do?” Yoosung seemed excited. To be honest, Saeran hadn’t planned this far ahead, but it was still summer, and that meant that there would be ice cream.

He suddenly really wanted that ice cream.

Lifting Yoosung out of the water, Saeran worked on getting him dried off. Yoosung helped as much as he could, wringing out his hair and wiping water off of himself. After a while, they got him dry enough that his merness started to fade away again.

“It hurts less, this time,” Yoosung said, wincing.

“You’re not screaming,” Saeran said.

“Yeah.” Yoosung’s legs came back, and he pulled his shorts on. Then they were off. Yoosung followed along behind Saeran, asking about different things they passed. He learned what a beach umbrella was, and saw sand castles.

“You build castles out of sand? That’s so cool! We should do that sometime!”

“Next week, then. I’ll get some sand castle toys.” Saeran saw some people looking at him and Yoosung. They must have thought the two of them were really weird. Like, really, really weird. Saeran curled in a bit, without even realizing it.

“Are you cold?” Yoosung asked.

“Huh? No, I… oh.” Now he realized it. He worked to straighten his shoulders. According to his therapist, if he kept his body from saying how he was feeling, he could get himself to feel a different way.

He wasn’t convinced that that was actually a thing that would work, but he figured he may as well try. Saeran told himself that these people didn’t care. They wouldn’t even remember him. It was going to be okay.

“Alright. Where are we going right now?”

“We’re going to get ice cream.”

“Ice cream? What’s that?”

“It’s a cold treat for a hot day. It tastes sweet.” Soon after, they arrived at an ice cream shop. Saeran led Yoosung inside. He already knew that he was going to get chocolate mint. It was his favorite, after all.

“You can have anything on that board,” Saeran said, pointing to the menu. Yoosung looked at it, concentrating because of the unfamiliar words.

“Oh! This one is strawberry, right? That tasty fruit I had a couple days ago.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t taste exactly like a strawberry, but it’s still pretty good.”

“I want it,” Yoosung said. Saeran ordered their cones, letting Yoosung take a lick from his to taste it. He decided that Saeran’s was tasty, but he still preferred his strawberry. They walked out of the shop, looking around for things to do. Saeran had to admit, there wasn’t a whole lot to do at the ocean when you couldn’t go in the ocean without accidentally revealing the existence of a mythical species.

Then again, you don’t have to go into the ocean itself to look at its creatures.

“I bet you know a lot about sea creatures, huh?” Saeran said.

“Yeah, I do. Why do you ask?”

“There’s an aquarium not too far from here, if you want to go. We can look at the fish. You can be near the ocean, technically, and you can teach me more about the fish than the handlers can.”

“That’s a great idea! Come on!” Yoosung started running off, but stopped shortly after. “I don’t actually know where it is.”

“You were heading in the right direction. See that big building up there?” Saeran pointed to a large building sitting near the ocean shore. “That’s the aquarium. They don’t have to go far to get the fish. I think they built it around a spawning ground for a rare type that was going to go extinct or something,” Saeran said.

They headed for it while eating their ice cream. Yoosung managed to keep it from dripping on his hand while also bouncing around like an excited child. Saeran supposed he was. It was a longer trek to the aquarium than Saeran remembered, but he may have been the excited child himself, last time. It had been a few years, since then.

Finishing their ice cream was an imperative before they headed inside. Food wasn’t allowed in the aquarium, under any circumstances, unless it was fish food.

“That was so good! I like ice cream,” Yoosung declared, finishing his cone.

“Me, too,” Saeran said after swallowing. He paid for them to go in, and started showing Yoosung around the exhibits.

“Oh! I know this fish! They’re not very tasty, but they’re supposed to be good for you,” Yoosung said, looking at a brightly colored one. “I prefer looking at them. They’re so pretty.”

“Yeah, they are. You eat fish under the sea?”

“Yep! Usually, I can get by on about five fish a day, but when I go exploring, I end up eating ten or so. Don’t tell my mom, but I haven’t eaten one of these in years.” Saeran smiled and blew air from his nose.

“I won’t say a word.” So, that brightly colored fish was like the vegetable of the sea, that food that some people would like, but some people avoided because they didn’t like it.

“This one is fun to chase. They’re fast,” Yoosung said. Saeran watched as Yoosung pointed out different fish, giving more information on them than was written on the description plaques. Saeran smiled as he learned more and more. He noted Yoosung’s favorite, the catfish. He said that the whiskers were adorable.

“They kind of remind me of Elizabeth, too,” he said. “She really likes me.”

“That might be because you smell like fish,” Saeran said. Yoosung laughed.

“Probably! Oh, we can pet the sharks? That’s so cool! I always thought you guys were too scared to go near them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You’re always so timid near them. You even lock yourselves in those metal cages. Is that some kind of punishment?”

“No. It’s a sport. People get into the cage when sharks are around, and stay inside because they don’t want to get bitten.”

“Huh. I’ve talked to some sharks who’ve been around those people. They say that they’re worried because the weird leggy things are stuck.” Saeran couldn’t help smiling, especially since Yoosung looked genuinely concerned.

“Well, next time you talk to a shark, you can tell them that we put ourselves in cages to hang out with sharks without being in a lot of danger.”

“Okay!”

“So sharks really worry about us?”

“Once they realize that you’re there. They don’t have great eyes, but they do try to make sure that you guys are safe. Hello~” Yoosung said, putting his hand in the shark tank and petting one gently. Saeran followed his lead.

“Hey there,” he said softly. The shark swam under his hand, doubling back for another round. It kept coming back, so Saeran kept on petting it. Yoosung giggled.

“It likes you,” he said.

“Yeah, it does.”

“That shark’s name is Unagi. He loves attention,” said one of the keepers. Saeran glanced at him briefly, then went back to petting the shark.

“I wonder if they’d still understand me if I were to speak to them...” Yoosung muttered. Saeran missed what that meant, until Yoosung plunged his head into the water.

“Oh my god!” Saeran pulled Yoosung out quickly, as the keeper leaped into action. “You can’t just jump in there!”

“Sorry.” The sharks started swimming over. Saeran watched them as they gathered around where Yoosung had just been.

“Are you okay, sir? You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Uh, Yoosung?” Saeran said, tugging on his sleeve. They looked at the water, seeing all of the sharks in the pool staring at Yoosung.

“Go on home, little ones,” Yoosung said, waving his hands in the water. Unagi stuck around, but the other sharks went back to what they were doing before. Saeran pet the shark one last time.

“It might be better for us to go, now,” Saeran said.

Even so, he couldn’t help but notice that the fish were all following Yoosung as he passed by, shifting from what they were doing to see him. Fish that normally stayed out of sight were coming out of their hiding places. Saeran realized that this had been happening all day.

Several photographers were following them, getting pictures of the fish as they swam around in plain sight. It was certainly something, to be sure. Saeran tugged at a sleeve, nervous because of the people following them. Yoosung was completely oblivious to the attention he was getting.

They reached the exhibit that had started the aquarium, the spawning ground of a rare kind of fish. It was open to the ocean itself, but the spawning ground was sheltered. They could see some of the fish still inside it, waiting until they were fully grown to brave the deep ocean.

“Oh! I know these fish! A lot of their spawning grounds are far away, so I don’t get to see them often. But, some of my parents’ friends say that there are more of them around. We don’t eat them a lot,” Yoosung said.

“That’s good. I guess that means that the aquarium’s conservation efforts really are paying off.”

“Yeah. I don’t work in the census, but I have heard that a lot of species are making returns because of the humans’ efforts.” Yoosung watched the fish swim around, eating the food pellets that were dropped in.

“Is it safe for you to talk about your culture so openly?” Saeran asked.

“I dunno. What’s that weird food stuff?”

“It’s fish food. It’s supposed to be healthy for them. Help them grow up strong.”

“I see. Like the icky fish back at the beginning.”

“Yeah, like them.” Saeran hadn’t really like vegetables, either, growing up.

“What do the pellets taste like?”

“They’re tasty to the fish. Our scientists make sure the fish food tastes good before it’s allowed to be mass produced for our aquariums,” said another keeper. He smiled. “You know, you two have been attracting a lot of attention.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun dunnn. lol
> 
> comment if you wish ^^ tell me about your favorite parts, or your obsession with sitting on things :P


	6. Chapter 6

Yoosung smiled, but Saeran sensed something else underneath the keeper’s happy attitude. He was a middle aged man, fairly non-descript. Saeran felt like, if he were to try and pick the man out, he wouldn’t be able to. That was a problem.

“Are we?” Yoosung asked, looking at the people with cameras, all taking pictures of the fish as they looked straight at Yoosung. He realized that they were amazed by the fish being attracted to him. It made sense, he supposed, in a way he kind of understood. Humans weren’t new to the fish, nor were they terribly familiar. Yoosung, however, was a mer, one of the magical creatures that the fish knew well, like animals of the forest know nymphs.

Even though the fish didn’t know why they knew this strange human, they knew that he was friendly. They knew, deep in their tiny fish bones, that he was from home. Yoosung had a connection to Mama that the fish longed for, and they wanted to see him for as long as possible.

Yoosung waved his arm back and forth in front of a large tank of imported tropical fish, and the fish swam around on command. People started oohing and aahing. Saeran realized that this was going to get bad, soon. He needed to stop Yoosung, and quickly.

“Hey, Yoosung, we need to get home, okay?”

“Hmm? Alright, but can we come here again, soon?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Saeran said, grabbing Yoosung’s arm. He hauled the mer away, bringing him outside quickly. The keeper kept watching them, making the hair on Saeran’s neck stand up. He shook his head to clear it quickly, a technique he’d had down for years. Marching down the street, Saeran made sure that Yoosung didn’t run away.

“Saeran, my arm’s starting to hurt. What’s the matter?” Yoosung asked.

“People in this world have a habit of liking by things, and things they like attract attention.”

“Is that why you try to scare people off? So you attract less attention?” Saeran gaped. He hadn’t realized that Yoosung had even noticed his tendency to keep people away. “And it’s like an angler fish. They have a bright light to attract fish. Is that a bad thing, here?”

“Kind of. When things get attention, more people arrive. Then the government finds out, and if they think there’s something to you, something that needs to be investigated, there’s no escape for you. They’ll come for you until you can’t run anymore.”

“Investigate me? That doesn’t sound so bad, Saeran,” Yoosung said, laughing.

“They’ll strap you to a table and tear you open to see how you tick. No more ocean, no more swimming, no more Yoosung,” Saeran said, his voice falling to ‘threatening,’ where it often was. Yoosung’s eyes widened, and his face paled. They kept moving toward the car.

“I see. So, no more aquarium, then.”

“Right. I want to take you back, sometime, but it’s too dangerous like this. And I think that keeper knows something. He was looking at you like he was figuring out a puzzle and was two steps from solving it. I don’t like it.”

“Okay. Then, we should focus on reading and writing and stuff, right?”

“Right. And math. And at least basic history for this country.”

“Math and history?”

“Yep. Have fun,” Saeran said. He was okay with math, but Saeyoung was a lot better at it than him. It used to rankle him, but Saeyoung couldn’t draw for shit, so ha.

“What is math?”

“It’s putting numbers together to make other numbers. Like, one plus one is two, and shit.”

“Oh! I was doing a trade with a friend once, and he told me that he would give me three bracelets for two necklaces. But I wasn’t careful and he made off with both of them. Yoosung plus a bad trade equals no more treasure,” Yoosung said.

“You’ve got the idea. It gets more complicated here.”

“More complicated?”

“The quadratic formula comes to mind. X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus 4 A C all over 2 A.”

“… what?”

“Yep. Have fun.” Saeran grinned a little, as Yoosung tried to figure out what it was that Saeran had just said. He finally ran his hand through his hair and leaned against the window, shaking his head. They made it to Jumin’s penthouse soon after, and Saeran brought Yoosung upstairs.

“Are you gonna stay to teach me math?”

“I’m not so good with math, but I can teach you the basics,” Saeran said. They sat down in the living room, a notebook open in front of them with a pencil to the side.

“Okay. You remember how to write numbers?”

“Yes!” Yoosung wrote the numbers down, as far as they were totally individual. “See?”

“Nice. Alright, I used one plus one in the car, which we write like this,” Saeran said, writing out ‘1+1=2.’

“Got it. So… that little cross thing… is that a plus?”

“Yeah. And the two lines are equals.” Saeran handed Yoosung the pencil, watching as he copied the formula. The mer grasped the concept pretty quickly, substituting first one number, then the other, creating more equations. He also managed to add them correctly.

“Subtraction is one line, like this.” Saeran added a dash, then wrote an ‘x’ and another dash with dots on top and bottom. “Those are for multiplication and division.”

“I get subtraction, because that was me, without treasure. What are multiplication and division?”

“Multiplication is used when a number is repeated a certain number of times to get a total. Six times eight is forty eight, for example, because a set of six repeated eight times gives a total of forty eight. Division goes the other way. Forty eight in eight separate sets will have six in each.”

“I see!” Yoosung wrote out a couple formulas, looking at Saeran to make sure he did them right. Saeran nodded, once he got the gist of it. He started practicing with it, putting numbers together and getting totals out of them. Saeran mentioned at one point that multiplication sums were called products. Yoosung nodded.

“Those are the basic four that people use. Algebra comes up, sometimes, but I don’t think you’ll really need to know it.”

“Teach me anyway?” Yoosung asked, jumping in his seat excitedly. Saeran sighed. This guy seemed almost like a puppy at times. He wrote down a formula with ‘x’ in it as a variable.

“Unknowns are what make algebra. This is a variable. We don’t know its value, but by solving the equation, we can figure it out.” Saeran ran the formula through, getting 3 as the value. Yoosung tried making a few, but got stuck with some.

“Oh, right. Fractions exist.” Saeran blew air out of his mouth, already exasperated with fractions, and they hadn’t even started yet. Yoosung raised an eyebrow.

“Fractions?” he asked. Saeran wrote out ½.

“They’re not whole numbers, just parts. That’s a half. If I cut an apple into two pieces, and gave you a piece, then you would have one half.”

“I see!” Saeran continued explaining fractions, and then decimals. He tried to show Yoosung how to convert the mixed numbers into proper fractions, but failed.

“God, if Saeyoung were here, he could do this easily.”

“Yeah, but since you’re here, we can figure it out together.” Yoosung tried his hand at figuring out fractions, and did pretty well. Then he started putting them into his algebra.

“Why can you learn so fast?” Saeran asked. Yoosung stopped for a moment, looking into the distance. Saeran could have sworn that there was a glint in his eye, like he was trying to figure out what to say. Why would he feel the need?

“I guess I’m just lucky like that,” Yoosung replied, smiling. Saeran could tell he was lying. He wasn’t sure why, but this wasn’t the time to ask.

“Anyway, you can practice more with that, later. For now, let’s get started on history.” Saeran started with how the country was formed, moving from one ruler to the next, talking about what happened. They found papers online with more information.

Yoosung seemed to struggle more with this subject. He did his best to memorize how everything fit together in the history of the country, until it was nearly dinner time. Saeran had to go home.

“What? Why?” Yoosung asked. He grabbed Saeran’s sleeve, pouting. Saeran almost melted at the sight of his sad eyes.

“Because if I don’t get home to make dinner, Saeyoung’s going to forget to eat,” Saeran said. “I… don’t want him to be hurt.”

“I understand. Go on home. And Saeran?”

“Yeah?”

“I really had fun today. I hope we can figure out how to look at more fish. They were cute,” Yoosung said, smiling. Saeran smiled back. He headed down to the lobby, then outside to his car. Before he reached it, he saw the keeper from the aquarium standing around, looking for something.

Or someone.

Saeran ducked down behind another car in the lot, keeping an eye on the man as he stealthily made his way to his own car. Once he reached it, he climbed inside as quietly as possible. Saeran pulled his cell phone out.

“Jumin, there’s someone outside the penthouse. I took Yoosung to the aquarium earlier, and he was there. I think he’s dangerous.”

“I’ll let my security know. The situation will be cleared up in a few minutes.” Jumin hung up, and Saeran stayed in his car, hoping that he hadn’t been seen. He watched as a security guard from the building approached the man, having a conversation with him, then telling him to leave. The man bowed sarcastically, then turned to go. As he did, he looked Saeran in the eye and waved to him. Saeran gasped, trying to keep his face from betraying what he was feeling.

This was really bad. That man definitely recognized him. Worse, he knew that Saeran was in his car the whole time, and now knew what his car looked like. Saeran knew that Yoosung was safe where he was, but it would be difficult to get him to the ocean like he needed.

They could cross that bridge when they got to it. That’s what Saeran kept telling himself, as he pulled out of the parking lot, trying to get the remnants of a panic attack to go the fuck away. He needed to be in control while operating his car, otherwise there could be trouble.

 

He made it home, thankfully. Saeyoung hadn’t come out yet, apparently. Saeran got to cooking dinner.

“Ooh, something smells good,” Saeyoung said, as he finally came out of his room.

“Yeah, it does,” Saeran agreed. “Hey, we’ve got a slight problem with Yoosung.”

“You got him to the ocean, right? The turning back into a mer thing is normal.”

“I know that. That’s not the problem. I took him to the aquarium, and while we were there, one of the staff got interested in Yoosung.”

“Oh? What did he look like?”

“Brown hair, brown eyes. I don’t know, he wasn’t particularly notable.”

“I’ll see what I can find. Why was he interested in Yoosung?”

“Because the fish were following him around. He even got them to swim on command. I think that man knows he’s a mer.”

“Huh. I’ll have to look into that, too,” Saeyoung said. He hummed, scooping dinner onto a plate. Saeran did the same, sitting at the table with his brother. They ate in silence.

“So, you knew what to do,” Saeran finally said, looking at his twin.

“About the creeper problem? Yeah, I do this sort of thing sometimes.”

“No, about Yoosung. You’ve known about mers for awhile, and you even knew who to go to in order to have that spell cast. Jumin’s done it before, hasn’t he? Who was it? Who do you know?”

“You remember Zen?”

“Yeah.”

“Him. He’s a mer.”

“Zen is a merperson?”

“Yep. And Jaehee, Jumin’s old assistant. She decided to go into the ocean with Zen.”

“So what did they sacrifice?”

“Zen sacrificed his taste. Jaehee sacrificed touch. Those senses are gone permanently, but they still need to visit their homes every once in awhile.”

“How much power did that grant them?”

“Enough that Zen has a month, and Jaehee has three.”

“Oh,” Saeran said. What else could he say? The two of them had given up large parts of their lives in order to visit the sea and the land. Yoosung really hadn’t given much, had he?

If Saeran wanted to visit Yoosung’s home, what would he be willing to give up? He spent a good hour thinking about it. A sense he didn’t want… Well, there more than five senses, right? Could he give up one of those? Or maybe a limb… He didn’t know.

He wondered how Yoosung was doing with his history.

 

Yoosung was doing pretty well with history. Granted, it wasn’t as easy as the other subjects, where he was just learning new ways to do old tricks, but he still managed fine. He looked through the history books that Jumin brought home, petting Elizabeth idly as he read.

“Hey, Elizabeth. What do you think of merpeople?” he asked her. She meowed at him, nudging his hand.

“Oh, yeah? You like being petted by me, huh? Well, then, take this!” Yoosung petted and scratched Elizabeth more furiously, just as Jumin came through the door from work.

“How are your lessons, Yoosung?”

“They’re going well. I’m learning history right now. Saeran went over math some with me, earlier. We made it to algebra before he remembered fractions.”

“Really? I should get you a proper tutor. I still have the contact information for the tutor I hired last time.”

“That’d be awesome! Thank you, Jumin. You’re a really nice person.”

“I’m just doing my job,” Jumin said, though he couldn’t help a slight smile. Yoosung seemed to notice it, becoming more excited and hopping up. “Continue with your studies. There’s plenty more to learn.”

“Right!” Yoosung turned back to his book, looking for the page he’d dropped.

Jumin pulled his tie off, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. He went to his room, setting his jacket carefully on the bed. Elizabeth hopped up, sitting on his jacket and meowing. He petted her, rubbing his hand on her head, then went to the kitchen to get her food.

“Hey, Jumin, do you always get home this late?”

“I had a lot of work at the office tonight.”

“And every night since I’ve been here,” Yoosung said. He looked Jumin in the eye, captivating the older man. Jumin found his usual defenses starting to break. He solidified himself.

“The work comes and goes.”

“Really? It must be tough. What kind of work do you do?”

“Mostly looking over proposals and making sure things are in order before they’re passed along to others to oversee. New proposals are brought directly to me to check over. If they’re good, then we use them to make our business grow.”

“What’s your business?”

“It’s a corporation with ties to many different fields. We have power in a number of smaller companies across the world.”

“How big is the world?”

“It’s very big. This city is a small part of the country of Korea. Korea is on a peninsula under Russia, and surrounded by water. China and Japan sit on either side of it. All three of those are substantially larger companies.”

“I see. The world is a lot bigger than I thought.”

“Yes, and the ocean is the majority of it.”

“Really?”

“I have a globe, somewhere.” Jumin left the room, looking for the globe. Yoosung got up to help him. They found it in some random room. Spinning the globe around, Jumin pointed to Korea.

“There we are. That’s Korea. That’s Japan, Russia, and China.”

“Russia’s huge!”

“It’s the biggest country in the world. All of the blue is ocean.” Yoosung’s eyes got wide as he looked at the sheer size of the ocean.

“I met a few mer who had come up from the south. They said that they lived in a massive reef filled with tons of fish,” he said. “They said it was… about here?” Yoosung pointed to Australia’s oceans.

“Ah, the Great Barrier Reef. That’s quite the distance.”

“Their family decided to travel with a whale migration.”

“I see. Whales certainly have vast distances they cross.”

“Yeah, they do. The tales from migration fish are always so exciting! Sometimes mers will go off and swim around the world. They talk about the different marine life they see, and sometimes they’ll mention massive ships that mess with the currents.”

“Our cruise liners. They are a problem,” Jumin said. Yoosung traced his finger around the Ring of Fire, going from Korea to Japan’s coast, then all the way around the tectonic plate, and back.

“One of my friends spent five years going around this portion. I heard of a mer, years and years ago, who came from a mild sea, and had to swim for a very long time to see us. Apparently, she said she wanted to see the world.” He pointed to the Mediterranean.

“That’s half the world away. Do you have many visitors?”

“Not really. Sometimes nomadic tribes appear, but not often.”

“What about the Mariana’s Trench?” Jumin asked, pointing to a massive dark blue stripe between Africa and America.

“I haven’t heard anything from there. What is it?”

“That’s the deepest part of the ocean. We’ve made it to the bottom, but it was tough. The pressure is immense that far down.”

“Whoa! That’s probably where Mama lives, then.”

“Mama?”

“She gave life to the whole ocean! She stuck her sucker pods onto the sandy bottom, and lifted the land from the sea. Wherever her tentacles landed, great valleys were formed. She even created all sea life, including the mers. If that’s the deepest part of the ocean, that must be where she lives. It’d be too deep for me to reach.”

“Interesting. I suppose she’s good at hiding.”

“She’s selective about who she meets with. But I’ve heard she’s beautiful.” There was a calm look in Yoosung’s eyes.

“It’s getting late. Time for bed.”

“Aww. Do I have to? It’s a full moon tonight!”

“Now.”

“Alright.” Yoosung sauntered off to his room, getting ready for bed in the private bathroom. Jumin went back to his own room, seeing Elizabeth laying in her own bed. He smiled at the sight of her, petting her as he breathed deeply. It was… odd to have someone else in his house, but he liked it.

“So, you want to tell me about the kid?” a voice asked. Jumin looked over his shoulder to see his old friend, Jihyun. His aqua hair was flipped out of his deadened eyes.

“Jihyun. Hello.”

“Long time, no see, Jumin.”

“Indeed. It’s been about a month. How have you been?”

“I’ve been well. You?”

“Also well.”

“You seem tired, Jumin.”

“Work’s been busy.”

“And you’re casting spells again. So, if I had to guess, Saeyoung made another special friend?” Jihyun raised an eyebrow, smiling.

“Saeran, this time. He met Yoosung while he was out exploring a ship.”

“That new one that was recently declared safe?”

“That’s the one.” Jumin unbuttoned his shirt, tossing it into the laundry hamper, and grabbed some pajamas from his closet. He got changed. Jihyun cocked his head carefully.

“I know I can’t see, but isn’t it rude to change in front of someone?”

“We’ve known each other for years. Anyway, are you staying the night?”

“Yes. I’ll take my usual room. I assume you haven’t rented it out?”

“No, it’s there. Good night, Jihyun.”

“Night.” The aqua haired man nodded, then tapped his way down the hall to the guest room he used whenever he stayed over. As he went down the hall, making a bit of noise, he felt a presence watching him.

“You must be Yoosung. We can meet tomorrow. It’s late.” And he continued along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's on time and i have homework lololol


	7. Chapter 7

Yoosung woke up the next morning, not particularly remembering what had happened last night. He had heard something odd, and gone outside to check it out, but with one sleepy eye, he couldn’t see in the dark. Something had said that he must be Yoosung, and they would meet in the morning.

It was morning, at any rate. That meant it was time to get food. For a split second, Yoosung tried to rise into the water and swim out for a fish. That attempt landed him on the floor. He got up, rubbing his head where it had smacked into the carpet.

“Ouch,” he muttered, going to the bathroom. He did his business, brushed his teeth and hair that didn’t curl outside of the water like he was used to, and wandered into the kitchen to see what was on the menu. The stranger from last night was sitting there.

“Hello, Yoosung. Long time, no see,” he said.

“Hello? Do I know you?”

“I suppose I look a bit different, huh?” There was a wan smile on the other man’s face. “I go by V here.”

“V?” That sounded familiar, but why? Yoosung wracked his brain, trying to remember. He got a sense of the aqua hair V had, but he didn’t remember.

“Yes. I dated your cousin, Rika, for awhile. I spent last night trying to remember where I had heard your name, and I remembered that she had mentioned her dear cousin Yoosung, describing you. Of course, I can’t actually see you.” V chuckled.

Yoosung sat down across from V, confused.

“You… dated Rika?”

“For a time. She was my sun, and I hers.” He sounded wistful, and a nostalgic smile graced him. Yoosung leaned on his hands, elbows on the table. He remembered Rika, and he could remember V. For whatever reason, she had left their small surface city and gone deeper, to the more developed areas. She had taught him how to speak the humans’ language.

Yoosung had wondered how she had learned it.

“When did you last see her?”

“I saw her a few years ago. Then, she said that she had things she needed to do back home, and left. I haven’t been able to get ahold of her.”

“Yeah. She moved to the deep cities. I haven’t seen her in a long time, either.”

“She had magic.”

“What?”

“It suddenly occurred to me that you may not know how she learned our language so well. She used magic to make it easier for her. You speak it well, too. I suppose she spelled you while you were learning.”

“She used magic on me?”

“Possibly. I’m not sure.” Yoosung turned to watch as Jumin’s cook came in. He wasn’t always there, but he arrived in time to make Jumin breakfast. This morning, that was being increased to three people.

“Is V really your name?” Yoosung asked.

“No, it’s not. I don’t often use my real name,” V said.

“Huh. So what is your real name, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Jihyun. My name is Jihyun Kim. Do you have a surname, yet?”

“No, not yet. I don’t know what I need for the documentation stuff that Jumin and Saeran were talking about. Why have two names?”

“The surname is used to distinguish your family, to show who you’re related to. The given name, yours being Yoosung, is used to distinguish you as an individual.”

“Okay. I don’t have a family up here.”

“You can borrow mine. There are millions of Kims. No one will notice if another one shows up,” V said. Yoosung nodded in agreement. He still didn’t really understand the surname thing, but if it was required, then he could deal with that.

“Yoosung Kim. It sounds nice. Alright. Why would you help me?”

“Because I still love her, and she loved you. She said as much, when I asked her about her family. You were her dear cousin. She regretted not being able to spend more time with you.” Yoosung felt tears pricking at his eyes. Rika had said she wanted to change the world for the better, and unite the land and sea. Yoosung thought it was a beautiful dream, but she disappeared before she could act on it. All he had done was learn the language and collect things to try and figure them out.

“I… wanted to spend more time with her, too. And realize her dream.” At that point, Jumin appeared, sitting between them at the table, just as breakfast was served.

“It was a fanciful dream. In order to make both sides see each other as equals, it would take more than one person trying to change the world. The way she wanted to go about it was… unacceptable.”

“How can you know that?”

“She talked to me about it. She said she had ways to make others see things her way. I told her that it was foolish, and she tried to cast a spell on me.”

“Rika did that? That can’t be!”

“She did. She tried to slow my mind and open it to her ideals.”

“Rika wouldn’t have done something like that,” Yoosung said angrily. He wished he still had his claws. They would have made it so much easier to get Jumin to shut up. With his new little nubs, he couldn’t do anything.

“It seems impossible,” Jumin said.

“I’m sure she had a reason,” V added.

“Jumin, were you the reason that she left? That she swam off to the deep?”

“No, I wasn’t. If I were, I’m sure she would have told me. Regardless, this is very heavy talk for the morning. Why don’t we pick the conversation up this evening?”

“...fine.”

“V, how long will you be in town?”

“For a couple days. Then I’m going to an exhibition of some of my old photographs.” V took a sip of coffee that was set in front of him. Yoosung looked at his own cup of coffee. He hadn’t had any before now, and took a sip. It was bitter. He swallowed it, anyway, but didn’t touch the coffee for the rest of the meal. V asked him questions, and he answered them as best he could.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that V was the reason for Rika going away. After all, they had been together, Rika was spending time away from home, probably with him, and then decides to swim off? V was suspicious. Yoosung found himself trusting the man less than before. How could he trust him, really? He was probably hiding something.

V stayed in the penthouse with Yoosung that day. He seemed so… normal. At one point, as Yoosung was studying history, V had gone to one of the windows that faced the sea and opened it. He breathed in the salt air. Yoosung, too, lifted his head and closed his eyes because of the familiarity and comfort.

“I became a merman, for a time. I think I still can,” V said at one point.

“Yeah, I remember. You swam with Rika for a time. I met you, a few years ago.”

“Yes, you did. When things were right.”

“Yeah, before you scared Rika into going to the deep cities,” Yoosung said. He glared at V, whose face contorted in pain.

“I suppose I did. I told her I love her, and she said the same thing. I know she meant it, but… maybe I just wasn’t enough. Even her soulmate.”

“Soulmate!? You really think that she’s your soulmate? … Maybe she was. She was happiest when you were around. What did you do?”

“I don’t know. She told me, one day, that she wasn’t making enough progress. That she needed a fresh start, and then she left.”

“A fresh start? She said the same thing to me, that she was going to start anew, deeper in.” Yoosung bit back his tears as best he could, but one slipped down. “She… she wasn’t lying. Why did she leave?” His tongue darted out to catch the water droplet. He was expecting it to taste fresh, and was surprised to find it tasting of salt. He could almost feel his emotions draining out.

Breathing deeply, Yoosung tried to focus on getting his emotions out quietly and fully. He succeeded.

“I don’t know. She left me behind, and you.”

“V?” Yoosung asked, getting up and going toward the aqua haired man.

“Yes?”

“I miss her.” He hugged V, who hugged him back.

“I miss her, too.” The hug lasted a few minutes, until V pulled back. “You’re learning things to become a registered human, right?”

“Right. I’m trying to learn history, right now. It’s hard.”

“I can imagine. History is pretty boring. But it can be exciting, too. There’s a country called Australia that once lost a war to ten thousand birds.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. They tried to kill the birds, emus, as they came to the sea to cool off during a hot summer, but they were unsuccessful.”

“That’s hilarious!”

“That’s part of history. It’s not deemed important enough to know in our school systems, and it won’t come up when you’re learning things about Korea, but it’s still a fun thing to know.”

“Humans lost a war to birds. That’s funny. Can… can you help me study?”

“Certainly.” The two of them spent a couple hours reading through the book. V offered his knowledge when it was relevant, based on the education he had received as a child. Yoosung was amazed at what he knew.

“How do you know so much?”

“I was a good student, when I was a kid.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Jumin was better, though. We once had to paint houses. Jumin asked the teacher tons of questions, and practically designed a blueprint for his house.”

“Blueprint?”

“A special set of drawings to specify how things are put together in the house. Size of the materials, how much space is inside, where things will go. This whole building had a large set of blueprints, for each floor, and this penthouse alone was two of them.”

“Wow. This entire building?”

“Yes. It’s a part of mathematics and engineering. Even houses that are hundreds of years old had some sort of blueprint, so that they could be planned out and put together properly.”

“Like the castle mentioned here?” Yoosung read the passage aloud, and V nodded.

“Having fun?” Saeran asked, appearing in the doorway. “Who’s this?”

“I go by V.”

“He told me about a country called Australia that lost a war against a bunch of birds.”

“Seriously? Losers.” Saeran sat down near Yoosung, leaning back against his seat. Elizabeth 3rd jumped up onto his lap, as if summoned by his presence.

“She likes you,” Yoosung said, smiling.

“Is that Elizabeth?”

“Yeah. She’s cute.” Saeran ran his hand across her fur, watching her idly.

“It’s good to see you again, Saeran,” V said.

“Again?” That stopped his idleness. “We’ve never met.”

“We met a long time ago. I don’t expect you to remember. It was brief, and you were hiding for most of it.”

“Oh. Gotcha.” Saeran didn’t say anything more beyond that, just kept petting Elizabeth, until it looked like he had remembered something. “Yoosung, there’s a carnival in town today. Would you like to go?”

“Yeah! Oh. V, do you want to come?”

“I’m afraid the fun of a carnival is a bit lost on me. Besides, I’m still resting after traveling so much. Go have fun.”

“Alright.” Saeran took Yoosung out, after the former mer said good-bye to V. They went down in the elevator. Yoosung felt his stomach lift as they went.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that sensation. It’s so weird.”

“Yeah, it is. The carnival is about a half hour drive from here, so it’s going to be a bit before we get there. You okay with that drive?”

“Yeah! It’ll be fun.” Yoosung practically skipped to the car. He had no idea what a carnival was, but it sounded like some sort of festival thing. He pulled the seatbelt down, sitting comfortably in the passenger seat. Saeran got in next to him, starting the car.

“What’s a carnival like?”

“It has games, and prizes. There are rides you can go on that are fun. Saeyoung’s already there, probably.”

“I can’t wait,” Yoosung said, but he had to wait. The minutes dragged by, all thirty of them, before Yoosung finally saw the carnival, all set up. Saeran put the car in park and Yoosung was out the door.

“Yoosung, hold on!” Saeran grabbed his keys and bolted out, locking the car behind him as he ran to catch up. “Yoosung!”

“Sorry. It just looks so fun!”

“Did you ever get to see stuff like this?”

“Sometimes. Mostly I just waded around, but when we had traveling entertainers, the whole city showed up. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and hang out with them.”

“Cool. Well, here we go.” They stood in line to the carnival, waiting their turn to get inside. Yoosung bounced on his toes. The line moved steadily, until they were near the front. Saeran looked at the price for admission, pulling the amount out of his wallet. They finally arrived at the front. Saeran handed the person in the booth his money, then set his hand down for her to stamp. Yoosung did the same, following his lead. They walked inside, Yoosung admiring the little smiley face staring happily at him.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“It’s so the people working here know that we’re supposed to be here, and didn’t sneak in.”

“Sneaking in is bad?”

“Yeah. They have to get paid for their work, so we pay them to get in. If we don’t do that, it’s bad.”

“Oh. Money is really important, huh?”

“Yep. It looks like we’ll have to buy tickets to go on rides here. Is there anything you see that you want to do?” Saeran looked over at Yoosung, who was looking around him curiously, deciding on what he wanted to try.

“That spinning ride,” he declared, pointing to a Tilt-A-Whirl. Saeran nodded, buying a bunch of tickets from one of the booths. He stuffed them into his pocket, and the two of them waited for the ride to stop so they could get on. Once it did, he tore off the tickets needed to go on, handing them to the carny. They climbed into one of the cars, and Saeran pulled the metal ring down for them.

“What’s this?” Yoosung asked.

“It’s a handle. You hold onto it,” Saeran said. Sometimes things were simple.

“Okay.” Yoosung held on, waiting for the ride to start. It did, and they started going around. Then the car started to spin with gravity. Yoosung cheered. Saeran was happy to see him having fun. At least this day wasn’t starting out poorly.

The ride ended again, and they stepped off. Yoosung pulled Saeran from one ride to the next, leading him around. They entered the Midway, where Yoosung saw all of the plushes that were offered as prizes.

“How do you get those?” he asked. Saeran pointed to one of the games.

“That one’s a ring toss. If you get enough points from tossing the rings onto the bottles, you get a prize,” Saeran said as they approached. “Doing okay gets you something small, and getting a perfect score gets you a bigger prize. They’re usually rigged so that you can’t win, though.”

“I see. Can I try it?”

“Sure. Here,” Saeran said, handing money to the booth runner.

“Alright, here are the rules. You get three rings. If you can get ten points with them, you win! The big bottle in the back there is worth five points. The rest are worth three.” Saeran nodded. It was pretty typical. The only way to get one of the big plushes was to hit the big bottle. Looking at the distance, and how flimsy the rings were, there was no way it could be done, unless the thrower was incredibly lucky.

Yoosung lined up his shot, and got the ring onto the big bottle.

“Nice shot!” Saeran said. Yoosung grinned. He threw the next one, which also landed on the big bottle.

“Congratulations! You’ve won a prize in just two shots! Now, you weren’t cheating, were you?”

“No, sir,” Yoosung said. The carny stared him down, but Yoosung didn’t break under his intimidation. Finally, he had to admit that Yoosung had won fair and square, somehow.

“Pick one from the top, young man.” Yoosung immediately pointed to a starfish plush. The carny pulled it down and handed it to him, the sheer size of it engulfing Yoosung immediately.

“Isn’t it adorable, Saeran?”

“Yeah, you are --- it is. It’s very cute. We should put that in my car so we don’t have to carry it around all day.”

“Okay!” After putting it away, Saeran led Yoosung to find some food. They arrived at a cart that was selling fried chicken, burgers, and fries.

“Do you want anything here?” Saeran asked.

“I like chicken. I don’t know what a hamburger is, though.”

“I’ll get a hamburger, and you can try a bite.” He ordered a hamburger for himself and chicken fingers for Yoosung, and then brought it to a table to sit down and eat. Yoosung took a bite of his burger and liked it, then ate his chicken fingers.

“This food tastes way different from what I eat at Jumin’s place.”

“Jumin eats really expensive food. This stuff’s cheaper.”

“More money stuff?”

“Right. Jumin has a lot of money, so he can spend more on higher quality things. I don’t have as much as him, so this is the sort of thing I eat on a regular basis.”

“I see. How do you get money?”

“By working.”

“Like the people in my history lessons? They all had work to do.”

“Yeah. They got paid for it. People get paid for writing stuff for certain people, and other people get paid to do math.”

“I don’t think I would want to get paid to do math.”

“Yeah, it’s not my style, either. I do testing for my brother’s codes and games, so that’s how I earn money. We have something of a joint job. It lets us choose our hours, so we can earn money and do fun things.”

“Wow. So that’s why we’re at this carnival? Because you have money?” Saeran nodded, then looked over Yoosung’s shoulder. Saeyoung was coming along with two of his friends. Saeran recognized both of them, even from that distance. One of them was his neighborhood friend, Tom, who was still dressed like he was ready for a day in, with his sweatpants and hoodie. The other was Zen, the tall friend who had a rat tail and red eyes.

“Saeyoung’s here,” Saeran said. Yoosung looked over his shoulder at Saeyoung, and waved when Saeyoung made eye contact with him. Saeyoung grinned, coming over quickly. Saeran pointed him to the food cart before he could sit down.

“It’s lunch time. Eat some food.”

“Okie dokie! Come on, let’s get some food!” Saeyoung led his friends to the cart. Yoosung watched as the one in the hoodie walked past with a grin on his face, like he was just enjoying life. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Saeyoung’s other friend waved at Saeran as he passed, and looked at Yoosung. He stopped for a moment, eyes wide, then kept going. Yoosung stared at him, because that was Zen.

That was his friend Zen who visited other reefs on occasion.

Zen wasn’t just visiting reefs, and he hadn’t just made friends with humans.

Zen had decided to become human, too.

Saeyoung returned with food in tow, sitting down next to Saeran. Tom sat next to him, and Zen sat on Yoosung’s other side, adjacent to Saeran.

“Isn’t this nice? All of us being able to hang out?”

“It’s pretty chill,” Tom said. “What’s your name, blondie?”

“Uh, Yoosung. You?”

“Tom.”

“This is Zen,” Saeyoung said, gesturing to Zen. Yoosung nodded, but just before he was about to speak, Zen interrupted him.

“It’s nice to meet you, Yoosung. Where are you from?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you, Epher, for pointing out that plot point of the language stuff. next chapter is going to elaborate on Zen lololol
> 
> follow me @scriberat on tumblr, and comment if you wish :D:D:D


	8. Chapter 8

“I’m staying with a friend. I’m from out of town.”

“Oh yeah? Me, too,” Zen said, smiling. But his eyes were dangerous. Yoosung wondered what he trying to do. Of course the humans couldn’t know they were mers, but still, even going so far as to pretend that they had never met?

“Is that so? Well, I’d love to talk more with you, about what it’s like living in this town,” Yoosung said.

“I agree. It’ll be interesting. This place is really different from where I came from.” There was a pointedness to Zen’s words. Yoosung felt like he was trying to make a point.

“Say, Tom, didn’t you move here from somewhere?”

“Yeah, I moved from a smaller town. It took me awhile to get used to this place.”

“I like this place more than where we grew up,” Saeran added. Yoosung breathed a quiet sigh of relief. The awkwardness had passed, thankfully. He joined in the conversation as it turned more civil. Zen did the same, still pretending like they didn’t know each other from before.

“Anyway, this has been fun, but I have to get home,” Tom said eventually. He got up and walked away.

“See you!” Saeyoung shouted after him. Tom just waved, disappearing into the crowd.

“Alright, Saeyoung, what’s going on?” Zen asked. He looked angry. Yoosung would have been more worried, but he had seen Zen act like this before. His anger wasn’t that deep, as far as he could tell.

“What’s going on, my dear Zenny, is that Saeran has also found himself a fish boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend!?” Saeran screeched. Yoosung’s jaw dropped.

“S-Saeran… do you really see me like that?”

“No! Saeyoung’s being a fucking idiot!” Saeran smacked his brother, glaring into the distance. Zen’s expression didn’t change.

“Why did you let him do this? What has he lost?”

“Half his sight,” Saeyoung said, suddenly serious. Yoosung nodded as Zen looked at him. He could see the concern on his face, though it seemed like Zen thought he couldn’t see at all.

“I’m okay, Zen. Really. I chose to go through with this.”

“Right, right. You know what? Talk to me later. I need to cool off.” Zen got up and left the table, stalking away. Saeyoung followed him with a hurried apology.

“I didn’t think it would go this badly,” he said. Saeran and Yoosung watched them leave, then looked at each other. Yoosung couldn’t believe that Zen had reacted so poorly to seeing him. It made him sad.

“You okay?” Saeran asked.

“I’m fine. I just… I didn’t think he would act like that. I thought it was weird that he acted like he didn’t know me, but...” Yoosung did his best not to cry.

“So that’s Zen?”

“Yeah. We’ve been friends for years. Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we can ask Saeyoung later. Is he that stuck up back home?”

“No. Well, yes. He’s always going on and on about how gorgeous he is.”

“He was pretty attractive,” Saeran said. He looked at Yoosung, noting how he looked again. Blond hair, purple eyes, smooth looking skin that kind of shimmered a bit. Nice lips and he was so not going down that route. Saeran had already said that he didn’t see Yoosung as a boyfriend. He tried not to see him romantically at all.

It’d be really fucking strange to date a fish.

“Yeah, he is. I think, if I had been a girl, we might have ended up dating,” Yoosung said. Saeran thought about the pair for a moment.

“Maybe. You could be pretty good together. Did Saeyoung say that he was dating Zen?”

“I think so,” Yoosung replied, eyes widening. “Oh my god. Zen went to other reefs to be with Saeyoung. That’s why he said he knew him! But he just said that he only knew him by 707.”

“That’s a thing my brother does. People who’re on the outside of his life don’t know his real name. He must have introduced himself that way, and told Zen to refer to him like that. Freak.” Saeran rolled his eyes at his brother’s shenanigans as Yoosung laughed.

“He’s so weird. Even compared to everything I’ve learned.”

“Yeah. Did I ever tell you about our robot cat?”

“Robot cat?”

“Saeyoung built it awhile back. It likes to run around and mess things up. Mostly it just sits in one of our laps and loudly demands to be petted. It can’t even feel. Anyway, do you want to go and have fun?”

“Yeah! Let’s go,” Yoosung said happily. Saeran took him on a few more rides, as well as some repeats. Then, Yoosung saw the Ferris Wheel. He stared at it in awe, until Saeran pulled him toward it.

“Come on. If you want to ride, we can.” They waited briefly in line, then got on. Saeran slipped the carny a bit more cash so that they would pause at the top, then climbed in after Yoosung. It was built to have the chair and bar, putting passengers in the open air.

It climbed higher and higher. Saeran didn’t mind the height, but he could see Yoosung’s knuckles gripping the bar until they were white. He turned, and saw Yoosung scared out of his mind.

“Yoosung? Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Saeran said. “Close your eyes, and then look up to the sky.” Saeran didn’t know what else to do, but he figured that, with how touchy feely Yoosung was at times, it might be best to put an arm around him, so he did.

There was absolutely no ulterior motive to that move. Not a one.

Saeran felt Yoosung calming down next to him, and looking up at the clouds. He looked at them, himself, enjoying the fluffiness. The wheel stopped when they reached the top, inducing a new wave of panic. Yoosung clung to the rails, eyes shut tight. Saeran tried to find something in the clouds.

“Look, there’s a rabbit,” he said, pointing. Yoosung looked up again, trying to relax himself. Once he found the rabbit, he started smiling.

“That’s so cool! That one over is a puffer fish.”

“And… a vase of flowers. They’re so delicate looking.”

“One of those pretty colorful things that guy was carting around earlier!”

“A balloon?”

“Yeah!” Yoosung was happy with cloud watching. Saeran breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want Yoosung to be too upset. This was supposed to be fun, after all.

The ride let them down, and when they got off, Saeran figured it was about time to get Yoosung home. They left the fairgrounds, heading to Saeran’s car. Saeran had a slightly more difficult time driving than usual, since he had to see over the top of a giant starfish in the backseat. He didn’t mind, though, especially as Yoosung brought the thing upstairs with a huge smile on his face.

Saeran dropped him off at the penthouse, like he was supposed to.

“Hey, Saeran. I had a lot of fun, today. It was…” Yoosung trailed off, his cheeks getting a little pink. “Nice. Really nice,” he finally finished. Saeran tried to smile, but it was hard. Had he done something wrong, after all? Was it Zen, the Ferris Wheel, or something else entirely? Was Yoosung getting bored of hanging out with Saeran? That one hurt more than he was expecting it to.

“Yeah, it was. I had fun hanging out with you,” Saeran said. He turned to leave, but Yoosung tugged on his arm. Saeran turned to look at Yoosung, and found his lips covered.

“Um. You may not see me as a boyfriend, or any sort of mate-esque person, but I see you that way,” said Yoosung. There was a bit of fear in his eyes, as he anxiously awaited Saeran’s answer.

Saeran was too dumbstruck to answer. He touched his lips, subconsciously smiling.

“With your one eye? I guess I’ll have to do something so we see the same thing,” Saeran finally said, taking a risk. He kissed Yoosung back, then scurried into the elevator to abscond.

Well, he supposed that answered his question about how he felt about romance and relationships. If nothing else, he felt something for Yoosung, and he kept feeling something for Yoosung the entire way down the elevator.

When he got outside to his car, he saw someone standing near his car, checking their watch. The person had brown hair, fluffy and reaching just past their shoulders. Saeran cocked his head. Was this person related to the guy at the aquarium? That would be a problem. He prepared himself for a verbal confrontation.

“Are you Agent 707’s brother?” the stranger asked.

“What?” Saeran was honestly not expecting that one.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble. I still owe him for what he did for me. You look like him. Are you Saeran Choi?”

“Yeah, I am. Who are you, exactly?”

“My name is Vanderwood. That’s classified information, by the way. Legally, I’m called something else. Your brother asked me to keep an eye on this building while you were entering and leaving. Something about dangerous aquarium workers.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense,” Saeran said. Vanderwood gave him a look like he had said a sentence completely out of order, with words missing. He supposed that was kind of what happened. “Um. I ran into some trouble at the aquarium and now they’re hunting me and my friend down.”

“The blond one with the star in his hands?”

“Yeah. It’s a starfish.”

“Fish?” Vanderwood stated. “Does that have anything to do with the aquarium.

“Yes. We should discuss this elsewhere.” Vanderwood nodded, and Saeran entered his car. Vanderwood got into the passenger seat.

“This car is secure, I take it?”

“If you mean Saeyoung got his hands on it and fucked with the computer, then yes, it is. Feel safe?”

“No. We can wait to talk about this until we arrive at your apartment.” The drive consequently passed silently, as Vanderwood refused to speak a word until Saeran pulled up and got them to his apartment.

“Hey, Saeyoung, your friend is here!” Saeran called, then asked Vanderwood, “Do you want some tea, or something? Coffee?”

“No Ph D. Pepper?” Vanderwood asked with a smirk. Saeran returned it.

“Not for guests. That shit can rot with my brother.”

“Glad we’re on the same page about that. He spilled some on the couch once. I almost killed him for it.”

“You’re the terrifying maid he fired?”

“Yes.” Saeran rolled his eyes as Vanderwood glowered. Of course his brother had managed to make too much of a mess for a ‘maid’ to clean up, even if this person wasn’t actually supposed to clean anything.

Saeyoung hadn’t appeared, and his car wasn’t in the parking lot. Saeran assumed he was still out, until he heard a soft moan coming from his brother’s bedroom. He motioned for Vanderwood to stay quiet, and snuck over to Saeyoung’s bedroom door.

“Saeyoung?” he inquired.

“Y-yeah?” Saeyoung replied. So he was in there.

“Think you’re gonna be done any time soon?” It wasn’t uncommon for Saeran to hear his brother stroking himself a room over. Usually, he got some warning and headphones, but this time, he supposed Saeyoung hadn’t been expecting him home so soon. Oddly, however, it almost sounded like someone was in there with him?

“Uh, pr-ahh- probably not. Ahh, definitely not.”

“Fine.” Saeran facepalmed as he walked quickly away from the door. Vanderwood raised an eyebrow as he returned.

“Well?”

“He’s… indisposed.”

“Indisposed. Right. Anyway, what’s up with the kid with the starfish?” Vanderwood sat down on the couch as Saeran moved to the kitchenette to make tea.

“He’s not human, for starters. His name is Yoosung, and he’s a merman.”

“What, you mean like he has a tail and lives underwater?”

“Yeah. He has a spell on him right now, which allows him to be human for short spans of time. His name is Yoosung, and he’s learning how to be a human enough to pass in society.”

“I see. And the aquarium problem? What’s with that?”

“A guy at the aquarium saw Yoosung, and I think he knows that Yoosung’s a mer. The fish were following him around all over the place, as far as they could. He even started getting them to do tricks for him. People were taking pictures.”

“Aha. Well, that’ll make my job more difficult. However, none of this has reached the press, so I’m guessing that Saeyoung has managed to keep them from getting any of the photos.”

“Yeah. He’s a pain in the ass, but he knows what he’s doing.” Saeran brought two mugs of tea over to the couch, handing one to Vanderwood. They sipped at the warm drink, enjoying a moment of quiet, until they heard Saeyoung scream.

“He was indisposed, right?”

“Right. Did he just say ‘Zen’?”

“I believe so. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Yoosung said he knew Zen from the ocean, since they’re both mer. Zen played dumb earlier today, acting like they don’t know each other.”

“Makes sense. If mers aren’t supposed to be on land, which I assume is the case?” Vanderwood said. Saeran nodded. “Right. If they aren’t supposed to be on land, then it would be strange for them to know each other because they’re both from the sea.”

“He’s pretty smart.” They heard a door open, and Saeyoung joined them a moment later, somewhat out of breath. He popped up next to Saeran, forcing the two on the couch to squint past the sun’s glare as it came through the windows.

“Hey, guys. What are we talking about?”

“We’re talking about your little friend, Yoosung. You did send me to check on him and your brother, after all.”

“That I did, that I did. What have you said so far, little brother?” Saeyoung asked, clearly trying to bait Saeran. It didn’t work quite as well as Saeyoung had been hoping.

“I told Vanderwood that Yoosung and Zen are mers. I haven’t mentioned yet that the two of you just had sex,” Saeran said, as the front door closed with a yelp.

“What? We did not have sex, we were testing some stuff!” Saeyoung laughed. Saeran raised an eyebrow.

“Right. Testing the size of each other. On each other,” Vanderwood added.

“Nice,” Saeran said. They high fived. Saeyoung gawped for a moment, trying to recover.

“Alright fine,” he said finally. “I admit, we banged. It’s not interfering with my work, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

“You don’t have that sort of work, anymore,” Saeran said.

“Right. Who is Zen, aside from your partner?” Vanderwood asked.

“He’s an actor here, and apparently under the sea. I’ve never been, myself. I prefer space. But he likes to come and visit, says that the surface world is different and exciting. He and I talked earlier, about Yoosung. He’s angry that I had Yoosung transformed into a human. I told him that Yoosung wanted to do this on his own.”

“And what was his response to that?”

“He was still angry, but I think it was mostly because he’s worried about Yoosung getting hurt.”

“Would he be willing to sell Yoosung out?”

“No way. Zen’s not like that. They’re best friends, anyway. He told me, once he calmed down some,” Saeyoung said. He sat down on the couch, on Vanderwood’s other side, with a can of Ph D Pepper. Saeran nodded. During their brief introduction at the fair, he hadn’t gotten the sense that Zen was a particularly bad guy. He had bragged about himself a lot, and it was annoying as hell, but Saeran felt like he could be trusted.

“I see. Well, you gave me the information you have on the man who’s stalking your fish boy, so he shouldn’t be a problem. Between me and the security at Jumin Han’s building, he won’t be able to get close.”

“Good. I don’t want him to get hurt,” Saeran said. He could feel Saeyoung’s eyes on him, and sure enough, the obnoxious gold was staring at him with a wicked look. Saeyoung wiggled his eyebrows up and down. Saeran felt his cheeks get hotter.

“You’re in love with Yoosung~” Saeyoung sang.

“You fell in love with a fish first. And kept it from me.” Saeyoung had nothing to say about that. Vanderwood merely sighed before getting up with an empty mug.

“I think I understand the situation. Please excuse me. I need to go and do some work now.” Vanderwood exited the apartment, leaving the twins sitting together on the couch.

“Saeran. Do you think it was a mistake to bring Yoosung to the human world?”

“No. Well, maybe. He’s happy for now, anyway, since he’s finally learning about what he wants to. He told me that he used to look at the surface, sometimes, and wonder what was up here. Now he gets to find out.”

“Zen was the same way, at first. He wanted to know what was here, and when I met him, one day, he saw his chance. I asked Jumin if he knew about merpeople. V was the one who told me. He can transform, too.”

“V’s a mer?”

“No, he’s human. He became a mer to follow his love into the sea, so they could live together. Then, I guess, she left him behind. He never really explained, but he hasn’t gone into the ocean since then.” Silence filled the air between them, as they pondered the idea of mers and humans. In the end, Saeyoung had to get back to working on whatever it was that he did.

Saeran, for his part, decided to go to his room and look for more interesting things to show Yoosung.

 

Yoosung stretched his arms high over his head. Elizabeth tried to swat at them, causing Yoosung to laugh. He leaned back on his starfish. It was large enough to use as a pillow, and very comfortable, at that. Elizabeth curled up on his chest, pulling her tail in adorably. Yoosung petted her idly as she fell asleep. He was pretty tired, himself. It wasn’t dinner yet, but he figured a quick nap should be okay.

He awoke some time later. Elizabeth was gone, but his chest wasn’t cold. She must have left some time ago. Yoosung got out of bed, checking the time carefully, to make sure he wasn’t reading it wrong. He did that, sometimes. It was dinner, now. He left his room, going to the kitchen to see what Jumin’s chef had prepared.

Fish was on the menu that night, cooked fish. Yoosung felt like it ruined the flavor a bit, but he didn’t really complain. He had noticed that his sense of taste was worse off now than it had been before. Besides, the seasoning made up for the lack of tastiness in the fish itself.

V was already sitting in the dining room, digging into his meal. Yoosung joined him after getting a plate of fish and greens.

“Good evening, Yoosung. How was your day?”

“It was good. I went to a carnival with Saeran earlier, and got a big starfish toy.”

“That sounds fun. When is your next ocean day?”

“It’s on Saturday.”

“Do you mind if I come along? I haven’t been in the ocean in a long time, and I think it might be about time I swam again.”

“Sure. It’ll be more fun with the two of us under the water. Maybe Saeran can bring his scuba gear. We can all swim around together!”

“That sounds wonderful. Yoosung, you’re a precious person. You always have been. I’m sorry I never got the chance to know you well,” V said.

“Oh. It’s okay. We have the chance now, right?” Yoosung smiled, and V did too. They ate their dinners, surprised to hear the front door open.

“Did Jumin come home early?” Yoosung wondered. He got up to go and see, until he heard Elizabeth hiss and run off. At that point, he had a nasty feeling.

“Elizabeth? Where did you run off to?” V wondered aloud.

“Whoever’s there isn’t friendly,” Yoosung said, backing away carefully. He made his way to V’s side, determined to protect him. A voice called from the living room.

“Hello? Is anyone there? I, uh, I have a package for… Jumin Han.” V’s eyebrows furrowed together as he cocked his head to the side.

“There’s only a select few deliverymen approved to come to this penthouse. That person out there isn’t one of them. I’ll go and see why he’s here. Yoosung, I think it’d be best if you hide for now. Find Elizabeth and keep her quiet until he goes away, okay?”

“Okay.” Yoosung went to hide with Elizabeth, and V slowly caned his way out of the dining room to the front.

“Hello? Are you approved to be in this apartment?” he asked the deliveryman.

“Yes, I am. The, uh, the man who was supposed to come here got sick, so I’m filling in.” V kept his face neutral. He settled his cane next to him, tapping it three times on the floor. One of Jumin’s security guards also tapped three times, letting V know he was in the room if things went wrong.

“Filling in for Kiseung?” V asked, throwing out a random name.

“That’s right, I am,” the deliveryman said. He was promptly knocked unconscious by the security guard.

“Sorry about that, Mr. Kim. We weren’t sure if he was really filling in or not.”

“No harm done. Thank you for taking care of him. Oh, and when he wakes up, could you ask him if he has any affiliations with the local aquarium?”

“Of course, sir.” V smiled as the sound of the door closing hit his ears, then his face fell into a grim line. This was getting bad. Even he could tell.

“Yes, I think getting some swim practice in is exactly what I need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooooooohhhhh. this one has a lot more plot than my other fic lololol. ah, well. it was designed that way ^^
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D


	9. Chapter 9

Saeran was surprised when he saw the aqua colored tail flipping through the water. He hopped in himself, adjusting the placement of a snorkel on his face. His old tank had been destroyed, and he hadn’t gotten around to replacing it yet.

“You look funny,” Yoosung said, popping out of the water. V surfaced next to him.

“I bet I do,” Saeran replied. He set a flippered foot on the rock behind him, kicking off of it.

“Snork snork,” Saeyoung said, jumping in. Saeran rolled his eyes under his goggles. The two of them swam to meet with the mers in the water.

“Are you sure this is safe? What if someone sees us?” Zen asked from the rocks. He put his hands on his hips, his mouth set in a frown. Saeran wiped water off of his goggles as best he could, then slipped beneath the waves as Saeyoung swam back over. Yoosung let himself fall beneath the waves, his large purple eyes finding Saeran easily.

He grinned at the red hair floating around Saeran’s head, running a blissfully webbed hand through his own curling hair. Saeran grinned back. Yoosung took his hand and pulled him out to sea, knowing that he would have to surface soon.

Or did he?

Yoosung remembered a trick he used, when Saeran’s tank had been punctured. But that would be awkward, wouldn’t it? Kissing was an intimate thing, right? That wasn’t something people did unless they were dating, and even though they had approached the topic a couple days ago, they hadn’t decided whether they were dating or not.

Saeran motioned to the surface, and Yoosung figured he may as well try. It might be weird, but he really liked kissing Saeran last time, and this way, he could stay underwater for longer. So, he pulled Saeran’s snorkel off, motioning for him to breathe out. There needed to be room in the lungs after all. Saeran looked at him like he was insane. Yoosung smiled as reassuringly as he could, until Saeran finally breathed out, and Yoosung pressed their mouths together before he could breathe in again.

It was the strangest feeling, in Saeran’s experience. Air from Yoosung’s lungs entered his own, leaving a fishy taste in his mouth. But, he didn’t need to breathe for awhile longer. They kept swimming around, staying close to the rocks where the others were. V was drifting along the bottom, using his hands to feel his way around. Zen had finally entered the water.

They returned to the others, lounging around.

“So, V is a mer, too?” Zen asked.

“No, I’m human. I used the reverse of the spell to make a mer human.”

“Why?”

“I fell in love with a mermaid, as the story often goes. She became human to spend time with me, and I became mer to spend time with her.”

“Where is she now?”

“She… disappeared.”

“She swam away, into the deep cities. That’s what she told me,” said Yoosung. V smiled wistfully, sinking lower into the water. Zen frowned.

“You mean Rika?”

“Right.” They fell silent for a bit, until Saeyoung piped up.

“Hey, Zen. I heard that your career is going well.” Zen’s fins perked up at the mention of his career, and he started smiling. Yoosung stifled a laugh.

“Yeah, it is. I recently got cast in a larger production.”

“Really? I want to see you perform up here, sometime,” Yoosung said. Saeran was floating near him, and pretended that the current was making him drift closer, bit by bit. He really did like Yoosung, and the mer wasn’t a bad kisser. He drifted a little closer.

“I’ll have to reserve a ticket for you. Or should I get two, so Saeran can go with you?”

“Maybe three. We have a guard on him, so that he doesn’t end up getting hurt.”

“Getting hurt? How?”

“I took him to the aquarium a week ago or so. One of the workers saw him, and thought it was odd how he was attracting all of the fish. He had a knowing look.”

“I see.”

“I had a lot of fun at the aquarium, though. I was able to see so many fish, and you know those rare red fish? The aquarium is built on their spawning ground. They helped to keep the fish from going extinct.”

“That’s really cool! I should visit, sometime.”

“Not a good idea, at least, not until the problem with the aquarium worker is over,” Saeyoung said.

“I don’t think it will end anytime soon. There was a package delivered to Jumin’s penthouse by a strange man. He wasn’t supposed to be there, and the package had a strange substance in it. It’s being tested in a private lab, now,” V said. Yoosung shuddered at the memory. It had been scary enough, knowing that whoever was after him had managed to get that far, but Jumin was scarier. He had been absolutely furious that it had happened, and fired the guards in charge of security.

“Anyway, I think it’s about time we headed home,” Saeran said.

“Can I see your robot cat?” Yoosung asked.

“Sure. Come on, we need to dry you off.”

“Alright!” Yoosung and Saeran left the water, Saeran helping Yoosung dry off. Saeyoung and Zen helped V out, and got him dried off before Zen worked on himself. Once everyone had shifted back to being human, they got into a van Jumin had lent them for the day. Vanderwood slid into the passenger side seat.

“No one around. We’re safe,” Vanderwood told Saeyoung.

“Thank you for doing this, Vanderwood. I’ll try to get it solved as soon as possible.”

“That’d be nice.”

“Who is this?” V asked.

“This is Yoosung’s bodyguard, Vanderwood.”

“It’s lovely to meet you… uh… Miss? Mr.?”

“Whichever. I’m fine with both.”

The drive home ended with everyone ending up at Saeyoung and Saeran’s place. Yoosung saw the robot cat, which immediately started demanding everyone pet it. Yoosung picked it up and stroked its plastic body diligently as he sat on the couch.

“This is our place,” Saeran said, gesturing to the apartment. There was a kitchen in the corner, with a pole to make it seem sectioned off, even though the entire thing was open to the rest of the room. The entrance hall led into the living room, and a hall across from the kitchen led to the bathroom and bedrooms.

“It’s nice. I like it,” said Yoosung.

“You should like me, I’m adorable,” said the cat.

“Yeah, I like you, too, cutie.” Yoosung scratched the cat. Saeran sat down next to him, petting it as well. He was close to Yoosung, and he had a feeling that the kiss from earlier wasn’t just about giving him air.

Yoosung had already said that he liked Saeran like a boyfriend. Saeran felt like he liked Yoosung, too. He carefully wrapped an arm around Yoosung’s shoulders, trying to see how he would react. There was a moment of stiffness, but then Yoosung relaxed into him. Saeran gave the cat a pat on the head, and detached himself.

V smiled to himself. He may be blind, but he could still tell when people were falling in love around him. The last time he felt this, Saeyoung and Zen were starting to like each other.

“We should be heading back,” V said. “Saeran, you can stay over for lunch, if you’d like.”

“That sounds good. Thank you, V.” Saeran left with Yoosung, Vanderwood, and V, heading to his car. Saeyoung watched them go, looking at Zen. He gestured at his bedroom, and bolted in as Zen chased him.

 

“I think I’ve gotten everything down, now. And V said that I could use his last name, since it’s super common.”

“Awesome! You have a handle on fractions?”

“Yeah, I do. V’s been helping me with my history, so that’s been going swimmingly. He’s made it really interesting.”

“Good. I’m happy for you,” Saeran said. V looked out the window, his wistful smile on his face, as he reminisced on young love. Sometimes, he thought he could still hear Rika nearby.

“We’re about there, now, yes?” V asked. Saeran nodded, then realized that that was unhelpful.

“Yeah, we are. Just a little farther.”

“I wonder what we’re having for lunch? I hope it’s something tasty.”

“Knowing Jumin, he’s probably hired a top-notch chef to cook for him, huh?”

“Yeah, he has. But some of the food isn’t so great.”

They pulled into the parking lot, Yoosung almost jumping out before the car even stopped. He was out of the car before any of the others. He didn’t notice someone watching him as the group moved into Jumin’s penthouse. Vanderwood did, and shot the stalker a glare, unsure of whether or not they were actually a threat to Yoosung.

It was better and safer to take care of all possible threats.

“I’m really glad that you brought me to the fair the other day. The starfish is really comfortable to sleep on. Elizabeth certainly thinks so.” Elizabeth meowed at them as the elevator doors opened. Yoosung chuckled, picking her up and petting her.

“She really likes you,” V noted.

“Yeah, she does. Jumin’s pretty impressed that she’s so comfortable around me. I think she just likes how I smell, though.”

“Like the ocean?” Saeran asked. It was a good smell.

“Yeah, like the ocean.” Elizabeth purred in his arms, until she stopped abruptly, quirking an ear at something. None of them noticed. She leaped out of Yoosung’s arms, charging toward whatever it was that attracted her. It led her to the stairs. Elizabeth made impressive time, getting from the top floor to the bottom.

“Elizabeth?” Yoosung cried. He ran after her, all the way down the stairs, making significantly less impressive time. Saeran ran after him. Vanderwood called Saeyoung up, hoping that Elizabeth running off wasn’t anything important. However, considering the person outside, there was absolutely a chance that she had been attracted by him, somehow. Catnip?

“What is it?” Saeyoung asked. He seemed a bit out of breath.

“Elizabeth just ran out of Jumin’s penthouse. Yoosung and Saeran are chasing her, but I have a feeling that it’s related to that worker from the aquarium.”

“I see. I’ll hack the security tapes.”

“Good. Report when you have more information.”

“Understood.”

 

Saeyoung sighed as he hung up, looking tiredly at Zen, who was sitting behind him.

“Sorry, looks like I have some work that just came up.” He got up, stretching a bit, and sat at his computer. It was a cinch to hack the security cameras, especially since he had done it so many times before. He reviewed the footage of Elizabeth as she ran off, checked the stair cameras, and then the lobby in real time. He saw her claw at the front door, which was promptly opened as a strange man walked in. The man grabbed Elizabeth and walked out the door. A minute later, Yoosung burst through the door, looking around the lobby and calling for Elizabeth.

Saeyoung flipped to the outside camera, watching the man with Elizabeth drive away. He called Vanderwood, who answered back immediately.

“Someone’s kidnapped Elizabeth. He’s getting into a metallic brown car, should be visible from the window.”

“Understood.”

 

Vanderwood went to the window, opening it carefully. Sure enough, a brown car was pulling out of the parking lot. A second and a gunshot later, its tire was flat. Vanderwood closed the window again.

“Situation will be taken care of shortly. I’m going down for a confrontation.”

“What just happened?” V asked.

“I had to stop someone from leaving the parking lot with that cat.”

“I see.”

“Sure you do. Anyway, I’m heading down.”

“I’ll go with you. No one steals Jumin’s cat and gets away with it.”

“What can you do?”

“I can give him a cane drubbing. Point me at him.”

“You don’t seem like the kind of guy to like violence.”

“Normally, I’m not, but it may serve as a distraction so you can take him out.” Vanderwood grabbed V’s hand, and they headed down the elevator together. They arrived in the lobby to see Yoosung and Saeran standing anxiously, waiting for something to happen.

“Saeyoung told us to stay here and wait,” Saeran said.

“Good plan. I’ll deal with this moron.” Vanderwood and V kept moving, approaching the car at a quick clip.

“He hasn’t left his car yet,” Saeyoung said through the phone.

“Thank you. I’ll take care of this quickly.”

“What’s V doing out there?”

“He wanted to help with this.” They came up to the car. Vanderwood knocked on the window, but there was no movement from inside. The windows were tinted. Quickly weighing options, Vanderwood figured that it would cause less damage to have glass picked out of Elizabeth’s fur. They broke the window.

“Please! Don’t hurt me!” came a mewling voice from the back. Vanderwood tested the handle. It was locked.

“Unlock the door!”

“Right.” There was a click, and Vanderwood threw the door open, revealing the miscreant. A bullet whizzed by, narrowly missing V. Vanderwood pointed their gun at the cat thief’s face.

“I won’t hurt you,” they said, shooting the seat next to the man’s head, “as long as you don’t hurt me or my friend. Or the cat.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Hand me Elizabeth.”

“Who?”

“The cat!” White fur was covering Vanderwood in under three seconds. The man came out of the car. Vanderwood pointed V at him, and he hit him hard over the head.

“Nice drub.”

“Thank you. It’s one advantage to being blind.”

“Anyway, let’s get this guy upstairs for some… interrogation.”

 

Zen grabbed Saeyoung, trying to keep him inside the room. Saeyoung wriggled his way out of Zen’s grasp, breaking for the door as he pulled his pants on. Unfortunately, he was off-balance, and Zen’s next lunge knocked him to the floor.

“Oh, no. You’re not leaving me so soon. We’re not done just yet.”

“Zen, you have impossible stamina. I’m practically finished.”

“You just need to take better care of yourself. Besides, getting anywhere near that cat is going to mean fur in this apartment, and then I can’t be in here with you.”

“Right. I’ll call them later, to see how it goes.”

“Good. Now, come back to bed, sweetie.”

 

Vanderwood grinned, about fifteen minutes after getting the man into the apartment. They had been hoping that the man would be easy to break, and boy was he. He talked all about how he was part of an association that looked for mers on the land, mers who were drifting away from the ocean, bit by bit. That included Yoosung.

It was a conundrum, for sure.

After relaying the information to Saeyoung, Vanderwood reported the news to the others.

“Are you kidding? So there are mermaid hunters, now?” Saeran asked.

“That’s right.”

“And what even is drifting, anyway?”

“It’s when a mer decides to leave the ocean for the land. If a mer leaves the ocean behind, they can’t return home, and they can’t rejoin Mama,” Yoosung said.

“Mama? This is raising more questions than it answers,” Vanderwood muttered.

“Mama is the origin of the ocean. She created the oceans with her tentacles, and birthed all living creatures in the depths.”

“Right...”

“Anyway, so this person is hunting mers.”

“Not hunting. Gathering. They’re gathering mers for some reason. He didn’t specify, but he doesn’t know anything more.”

“This is getting deeper all the time,” Saeran said.

“Yes, it is,” V replied. He stroked his chin, trying to figure out why someone would try to find mers. He couldn’t think of any good reason.

“Why?” Yoosung asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe whoever’s in charge is building an army?”

“Why would someone build an army?”

“No idea.”

“Lunch time!” Jumin’s chef said, coming out of the kitchen and setting trays of food on the living room table. They ate lunch, letting the topic of conversation move to lighter things.

 

Jumin stretched his arms over his head as he got a call. It was from a strange number.

“Hello, this is C&R Corp. Office of Jumin Han. Who is this?”

“Your precious little friend is going to be ours, soon.”

“Is this a prank call?” Jumin did not have the patience to deal with this. He was done with his work, anyway. “Good-bye.”

After hanging up, Jumin left his work, going home. He rubbed his temple, tired beyond belief. The van stopped suddenly. Jumin looked out the window in surprise. There was a car parked in the middle of the road. He sighed, nearly turning to a growl.

“What is this moron doing here?” he muttered. Driver Kim got out to check on things, meeting with the other driver. Jumin had a feeling that the other driver was dangerous. He watched him carefully, calling Saeyoung.

“Saeyoung. There’s a man who stopped my car. I think he may be related to whoever dropped that package off.”

“Right, we found out more on that. He’s with a group that’s looking for mers on land.”

“Is that so? Doesn’t that put Yoosung and Zen in danger?”

“Yeah, it does. Don’t worry, I am taking care of it. Elizabeth is safe, by the way.”

“…I don’t trust you when you say that,” Jumin said.

“Don’t worry. Saeran and Yoosung kept her safe.”

“Right. I’ll be home soon.” Driver Kim got back in the van, as the car in front of them drove away.

“He asked about Yoosung, sir, but don’t worry. I didn’t say anything about him.”

“Thank you, Driver Kim,” Jumin said. He wanted to consider what his next move may be, but he didn’t have enough information to formulate one. It was a problem, that was for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> snork snork
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D


	10. Chapter 10

Yoosung watched as Vanderwood let the man go. He understood the plan, sort of. They were letting him go to have him lead them back somewhere, or something. Either way, Saeyoung was tracking his car as it went along. Even Zen was helping out, this time, going along on his motorcycle, so far unknown to the hunting group.

“It’s probably best if you stay in this place for now, Yoosung. No more going outside.”

“That’s okay. I have a week before I need to go to the ocean, anyway.”

“Right,” Vanderwood said, going to the kitchen.

“Would it be possible to pump some ocean water into a tank and then bring it here?” Saeran asked.

“No. We tried that with Rika, but it didn’t work for her. He needs a connection to Mama, and that’s lost when water leaves the ocean,” V said.

“Oh.”

Elizabeth rubbed herself against Yoosung’s leg, and he picked her up, going to sit next to Saeran. After that kiss, they hadn’t really talked about a future together. It seemed impossible right now, anyway. Saeran reached a hand over and stroked Elizabeth’s fur.

“What are we supposed to do?” Saeran asked.

“I don’t know. I wish I could ask Mama what to do about this. She would probably know.”

“Where is she?”

“The deepest part of the ocean, far away from here.”

“I’ve heard that she’s powerful,” said V.

“Yeah, she is. But… I don’t know if I would want to meet her. She has a tendency to be territorial. I’ve heard of mers who went a little too close to her home, and ended up never coming back.”

“Then maybe we should lead the mer hunters to her, and she can take care of them for us,” Saeran said.

“No, thank you.”

“Yeah, and we don’t even really know where to find her.”

“Jumin said that the deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana’s Trench, but that’s far away from here. There’s no way, and the trench itself is huge. She could be in any part of it.”

The three of them sat dejectedly, trying to figure out what to do, or if there was even anything they could do.

 

Zen zoomed along down the road, trying to keep himself together. It would do no good if he started getting overly emotional, especially on such a vulnerable vehicle. Saeyoung directed him through various turns, keeping him a certain distance from the person they were tracking so as not to arouse suspicion.

“You know, it’s kind of weird how calm you are about this sort of thing,” Zen said.

“I’ve done it a couple times before. Finding and hacking into places is part of what I did for the agency.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“You’ve led a crazy life, Sae.”

“I know. Take a left.” Zen went left, and found the aquarium ahead of him. It was still open. He went inside per Saeyoung’s instructions, paying for a ticket in. Wandering around, he couldn’t help but notice that the fish were looking at him. He signaled them to go about their normal business like he wasn’t there. He hadn’t been too far behind the man in the car, and he found that man walking quickly toward a section of the aquarium that was only for employees.

Zen followed him as he walked through a door, and got through before it closed.

“Alright, this is where it gets dangerous, since you’re not supposed to be here at all. Be careful,” Saeyoung said. Zen grunted quietly in response, trying to make his footsteps as quiet as possible. He was extremely noticeable, especially as they moved through a room filled with fish tanks. The fish inside kept looking at him, until he told them to look away.

The man in front of him moved to turn around. Zen’s breath caught in his throat. There was nowhere to hide. But an octopus on the other side started knocking on the glass of its tank just before Zen was caught. The man whipped around to look at it as the octopus opened the latch and climbed on top, stretching its tentacles toward him.

“Fight me,” it said, putting its tentacles up threateningly. The man looked at it curiously, distracted just enough that Zen was able to slip off his radar. Eventually, the man gave up trying to figure out the octopus’s sudden behavior, choosing instead to stuff it back in its tank.

“Thank you,” Zen mouthed.

“You’ve got a friend in me. Try matching your steps with his, it might help.” The man kept walking on, going deeper into the aquarium’s back passages. Zen followed silently, matching their footsteps together. After that, there were no more incidents. The octopus hadn’t been lying, but it was pretty weird how it knew how to sneak. How often had it climbed out of its tank?

“Doing alright?” Saeyoung asked quietly. “I can see you on the cameras, so you can just nod.” Zen nodded in response. His heart was hammering in his chest, a fact which he was trying hard to ignore. He figured that, if Saeyoung had control of the cameras, that meant that Zen was currently not being watched. That was good.

The man approached a locked door, after awhile, pulling a key from his keyring, as well as a small metal box. He unlocked the box, pulling out another key, and unlocked the door, relocking the key inside the metal box. Zen knew that he had one chance to get inside that door. He followed almost on top of the man, slipping in easily.

His ponytail was not so lucky. It got stuck inside the door, trapping Zen where he was. Thankfully, Saeyoung had foreseen multiple possibilities, and equipped Zen with a pair of scissors. He hadn’t understood at the time, but now he got it. He pulled them out, cutting his tail off as close to the door as possible, so that it wasn’t so obvious from the inside.

“I’ll figure that out later,” Saeyoung muttered. Zen nodded, and continued after the man. Now that he was in close proximity, he --- or rather, his nose --- was starting to realize that there was cat fur stuck to the other man’s jacket.

Zen held a finger under his nose, trying to control himself as best he could. It worked for a bit, at least.

“Get the tracker on him, and get out of there! I can hack into wherever I need to to gather information, but I’m not letting you get caught. Okay?” Zen nodded carefully, lengthening his strides to cover more distance. He pulled out a small tracking device, setting it gently on the man’s shoulder, under his collar. Then he backed away and walked quickly out of the maze, collecting the remnants of his ponytail as he headed out.

“So what brings you sneaking into this place, anyway?” the octopus asked, as Zen made for the exit.

“One of my friends is being tracked. He came here a couple weeks ago, and it caused some problems.”

“I remember. Several fish had fainting spells and got moved back here to recover. They told the rest of us that there was a mer abroad. We were all very excited. Come closer,” the octopus said. Zen did so. “We don’t get to find out a whole lot, but the humans here don’t realize that some of us can understand them. There’s a plot apod to gather mer who’ve gone ashore, and bring them home. But it doesn’t sound like it’s anything good.”

“Thank you, friend. Can you take care of something for me?”

“Sure.” Zen dumped his hair into the octopus’s tank, where it was promptly wrapped and braided. “You want it back, mer?”

“Nah. Keep it.” Zen moved on as the octopus tucked its new braid away into a corner of the tank where it couldn’t be seen. He was almost out… and then he was. Zen pretended like nothing happened, walking away from the Employees Only area, and left the aquarium before he stirred up too much trouble for himself.

 

Saeyoung, meanwhile, kept an eye on the man he had been tracking since Elizabeth’s kidnapping. No one messed with his little Elly, and they certainly did not mess with his friends. He watched, hopping from one camera to the next, as the man made his way to another door. This one wasn’t locked. Saeyoung looked for a camera to see inside, but there wasn’t one. Whatever happened behind that door wasn’t mean to be seen or heard.

He turned on the audio on the tracker, a device he had implemented specifically for locked down rooms like this.

“I almost had the mer, but I was… intercepted,” the man said.

“What happened?”

“I was driving away with the cat, intending to use it for a trade-off, but someone working with the mer had a gun. They shot out my tires, and then took the cat back and kidnapped me.”

“Did you reveal information?”

“...No?” There was a tense pause, then, “well, maybe a bit...”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that we were looking for mer that made it onto the land, nothing more.”

“Right. I’ll have to ask the boss about this one… Hey, boss,” said the other voice. Saeyoung guessed the other person in the room was talking into a phone or something. “One of my subordinates messed up, and gave away information. What should I do with him? … Okay.”

Saeyoung heard a click, like the safety of a gun being taken off, and then there was begging and crying, a gunshot, and a thud. Saeyoung gulped. Just that little bit of information had gotten the man killed. Whatever this group was, they did not mess around. At all.

“What’s this? A tracker? Damn.” The audio buzzed, and then went dead. So the tracker had been disabled. That was alright. Saeyoung had gotten the information he needed. He decided not to wait to get as much information on this strange group as he could. He dug deeper into their system, past the cameras and the files on the aquarium’s inner workings on the business front. Eventually, he found a weird looking file, and checked it out.

“Bingo,” he muttered, a grin splitting his face. He tore the file open, scanning through and finding plenty of information about various mers who had found ways to join those on land. It seemed that there was a certain mer they would go to, deeper in the ocean. That mer would send them to the land, somehow. His quick scan didn’t reveal much more than that. Saeyoung proceeded to download the entire file. He needed what he could get.

He was completely out of their system before their security realized they had been hacked. Then again, when do they ever?

 

Saeran sat at his brother’s computer, taking a shift looking through the file he had found about the mer making other mers into humans. It was fairly interesting, to say the least. The operation had started about four years ago, becoming more intense after one year of working. The aquarium had been a part of it the entire time. Many of the staffers were secretly mers, who had given something huge to be able to stay above the water for so long. There were records saying when each of them had to go into the ocean, but they were years apart. Saeran scrunched his eyebrows, wondering what it was that they had given up. Whatever it was, it wasn’t here.

“Find anything?” Saeyoung asked.

“Yeah. A lot of aquarium staffers are mers.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Take a look. There’s a list saying when each of them has to return to the ocean so they don’t suffer.”

“That’s a long time. Even giving up a sense only earns a person a month outside of their natural habitat. What is going on? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t say.”

“It looks like one of them is dipping on Thursday. Let’s go and pay them a visit.” Saeran nodded. It would certainly be interesting.

“We don’t know where they’re going to be, though.”

“I can get into their cameras and follow them to wherever it is they’re going. The aquarium probably has a cistern or something, so their mers can swim without problems.”

“Right.”

 

Thursday appeared, meaning Saeyoung, Saeran, and Yoosung were on their way to the aquarium. Saeran drove as Saeyoung kept an eye on their new ‘friend.’ Yoosung rode next to Saeran, unsure of what he could do, but he had already demanded to come with the other two, so this was happening. He didn’t know what had made him so adamant to step foot in such a dangerous place, but he had a feeling that it was extremely important that he go.

“Yep, there’s a pool inside for the mers.”

“How do we reach it?”

“If it’s connected to the ocean, there should be a place where the water comes through.”

“I’ll check the blueprints.” Saeran pulled into a parking lot that wasn’t the aquarium’s so Saeyoung would have more time. Saeyoung nodded in thanks, opening the blueprints and looking around for the cistern. He found it, as well as a tunnel that was wide enough for someone to swim in which led to the ocean. After checking the position against the aquarium’s place on the cliff side, Saeyoung was able to confirm approximately where the tunnel led out.

“Found it,” he said. “We’ll need to dive in. Has your tank shown up yet?”

“Not yet,” Saeran said.

“I can cover him,” said Yoosung.

“Right. Okay. We’ll go around the beach side, and get into the cistern directly. We should move quickly, this mer’s appointment time is coming up.” Saeran drove to the beach, and they gathered their scuba equipment, going to the rocks. Once they had suited up, they dove into the water. Yoosung felt his body shift again, and scattered the waves a bit to create cover. The other two started swimming for the tunnel. Yoosung followed.

It took quite a bit of swimming, most of which Saeran did on the surface, until he decided to dive down with his mask on. Even if it wasn’t much, at least his mask, with patched together tubes, was able to store a few breaths. He kept it on as they got close to the aquarium, coming up in a blind spot that Saeyoung had marked before they went in.

“The tunnel is that way, a bit farther. I don’t know exactly where it is, though.”

“I can feel it from here, It’s drawing water in,”Yoosung said.

“Good.” Saeran tilted his mask’s tubes so that fresh air would flow in, then put it back on his face as they dove beneath the surface again. Yoosung led the way to the tunnel into the cistern. There were bars across it, which he handled with ease, bending them out of the way enough to allow passage. Saeyoung went in first, then Yoosung, and finally, Saeran.

The twins popped their heads out of the water carefully. Saeyoung had the cameras in the room playing a feedback loop, with a time overlay that kept counting forward. It was one of his best codes.

“Any moment, now,” Saeyoung whispered. Saeran nodded as a door opened. They slipped under the water, waiting for the mer to step in. A minute later, they saw a pair of legs turn into a coral tail, flipping lazily at the side of the cistern. That was all they needed to move forward. They came up on either side of the mer, rising to the surface as one.

“Hello~ darling,” Saeyoung said. The mer, a woman with auburn hair and coral eyes, jumped back, finding Saeran on her other side, preventing her from moving properly. She looked between them, ear fins folded tightly against her head in fear. She tried to swim away, but Yoosung blocked her from moving. She tried to intimidate him, flashing her fins and teeth, losing as Yoosung did the same just a split second before her.

“Alright, miss, we have some questions for you. For one thing, who gave you the ability to move from sea to land?”

“I won’t tell you. You’ll be found out, soon. After all, the cameras are watching.”

“Are they?” Saeyoung asked, his tone indicating that the cameras were not, in fact, watching. “Because, if I remember correctly, someone put them on a loop, meaning that no one is watching.” The mermaid paled.

“That’s right. It’s just the four of us,” Saeran said.

“You can do whatever you want to me, but I’m not revealing anything to me!” Yoosung ducked below the water, knowing a certain pressure point at the base of the tail that his friends from childhood had used on him a couple times. He thwacked it, hard, causing the mer’s tail to spasm. The water made it hard to hear her, but he knew that she had cried out in pain.

It hurt, and was effective for getting mers to give in. He grabbed her tail, lifting it to the surface, and brought his head out of the water.

“If you keep trying to resist, I won’t stop,” Yoosung said menacingly. His eyes had darkened considerably.

“… Fine. I had to go to a deep city, because I heard there was a sea witch living there who knew how to make mers human.”

“What’s this sea witch’s name?”

“Rika.” Yoosung almost dropped her tail. It couldn’t be…

 

Saeran gulped. It made sense, he thought. If she had started four years ago, and then went to the surface, dated V, and returned a year after, it added up to why the operation to make mers into humans had gotten bigger three years ago. It still didn’t explain how she had managed to get the mers to become human for so long.

“I shouldn’t say anything more,” the mer said, looking scared. She was pale with fear.

“How can you last a year or more as humans?” he asked. She didn’t look like she was going to say anything. Yoosung pressed on her tail again, forcing her to speak.

“Ahh! Okay, okay! She demanded that we become her servants. We had to give up our right to decide for ourselves, and listen to her commands.”

“You were that desperate to see the human world?”

“Yes.” She was looking even paler than before. Veins were starting to appear in her skin. Saeran worried that they were killing her, somehow. He had a feeling he knew how.

“What happens if you disobey her?” he asked.

“I… I die.” The twins looked at each other, nodding.

“Thank you. I think that’s all for now.”

“It’s too late for me, at this point. Stay, there’s more to tell.”

“You’re willing to speak now?”

“I’ve already gone this far. She’s gathering an army, to start a takeover of the surface world. The aquarium is the easiest base of operation, but she has some of her subordinates leaking into the government. No one is allowed to know about any of this.” She started breathing hard.

“What’s your name?” Yoosung asked gently.

“Sarah. Up here, I’m Sarah Choi. My older sister, Glam, is working on Chairman Han, of the C&R Corporation.” Sarah choked, wretched, and slipped under the water, unable to keep herself afloat. Yoosung dove after her, but it was too late. She had a moment of convulsion, as bioluminescent lights in her skin flashed madly. Then, they stopped, and her body drifted to the bottom. Yoosung resurfaced, shaking his head.

“That’s fucked up,” Saeran whispered. Saeyoung nodded.

“It’s also a problem. She’ll be discovered missing, and then at the bottom of this pool. Anyway, we got more information. We should try and figure out our next move.”

“Right. Let’s go.” They swam out. Yoosung’s head spun. How could it be Rika in charge of all of this? It couldn’t be his Rika, right? There was no way. He tried to convince himself otherwise as they made their way back to Jumin’s place, with constant okays from Vanderwood that it was safe to return.

Inside, Yoosung could do little more than sit on the couch. The news that Rika was the one behind the mer hunters, that she was in charge of a large group of them, was shocking at the very least.

“What happened?” asked V.

“We’re not really sure. He heard the name ‘Rika’, and froze,” Saeyoung said.

“Rika’s involved?”

“Yeah. Who is she?”

“His cousin. She swam off to the deep a long time ago,” V said.

“It was about three years ago, right? And she came to the surface four years ago?” Saeran asked.

“That’s right.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. As far as I can tell, Rika came to the surface for whatever reason, and started making mers into humans per their request. This operation began in earnest a year after she arrived here, according to what we found in the files. I’m sure, if we start digging, we can find all sorts of fabricated documents related to the people at the aquarium.”

“Right. I’ll start digging around, see if I can get access to more information. It shouldn’t be too hard. Even if they beefed up their security, I’ll find my way in.”

“Alright. Be careful, Saeyoung.”

“I will be. Take care of Yoosung. He’s going to need comfort. Saeran, we need to go.”

“If it’s okay, I’d rather stay here, and help Yoosung.” Saeran was worried for the mer.

“Okay.” Saeyoung left after that. Vanderwood watched him leave, then looked to Yoosung. They raised an eyebrow. Saeran sat down next to Yoosung, placing a hand carefully on his back. Yoosung jumped, then relaxed, and started crying.

“Vanderwood, could you get his starfish plush?”

“Sure thing.” A minute later, the starfish was in Yoosung’s hands, getting wet as it absorbed his tears. He tried to stay quiet, not wanting to disturb the others too much. He clutched the plush hard, almost tearing into its fabric.

“How… how could it be Rika? It can’t be, right?” he asked quietly.

“I’m sorry, Yoosung. I’m afraid that this is the sort of thing she’d want to do. I tried to stop her, but she left me behind,” V said. Yoosung sobbed loudly. Saeran pulled him close, trying to comfort him, somehow. He felt so useless. Yoosung leaned into him, letting go of the plush and holding onto Saeran, instead.

“I’m here, Yoosung. I’ve got you. Don’t worry, we’ll get this all sorted out.” The words felt empty. What could they do, really? Even so, Saeran felt as if he would be willing to give up anything to help Yoosung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy oh boy oh boy
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D


	11. Chapter 11

“It might be best if we hide Yoosung somewhere that the mer hunters can’t find him,” Saeyoung said, once he and Saeran had returned to their apartment.

“But where are we supposed to hide him? We can’t keep him on land, because they know where he lives, but we can’t bring him down to the ocean, since they can follow him in,” Saeran replied.

“The ocean may be our only chance, anyway. If we can move him when they’re not watching, then we can get him to relative safety.”

“At least there, he can find somewhere to hide. There are a lot of crevices that most humans don’t know about,” Zen said.

“I’m going with you,” Saeran said. He didn’t know why. It just popped out.

“That’s not a good idea.”

“I agree, that won’t do. What happens if they find you?” Saeran thought for a moment. He really had no idea.

“I’ll be keeping Yoosung at my shell. Between me and Jaehee, he’ll be completely safe.”

“That’s where Jaehee is?” Saeyoung asked. Zen nodded. He grabbed a beer from the back of the fridge, where it was kept just for him. Neither of the twins drank, after all.

“If I’m going under, then I want to enjoy my last night here before we have to move.”

“That’s not going to be possible, either. I’m hacking into their security system soon, so that they can’t see us transporting Yoosung. Saeran, go and get him.”

“As long as I can go with him. Besides, with all of the commotion around Jumin’s building, it’d probably be best if we don’t move him out for the next few days. That’ll give me time to recover from the spell.”

“You have to be near the ocean in order for it to work.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s what we had to do for Jaehee. It was kind of awkward, but touching,” Zen said. A grimace stretched across his face. If Saeran had to guess, it was because he was in proximity to Jumin for a period of time of more than five seconds.

“I see.” Saeyoung sat down, with Zen following soon after. Saeran did, as well. This was going to take a lot more planning.

“If we can’t move for the next few days, then we need to make sure the others know, as well. Jumin will be safe, and I don’t think they know about V, so they can move. But they know about Saeran, and Zen, you’re popular, even if it’s just within musical circles,” Saeyoung said.

“So we can move after Tuesday? Then we can ask Jumin to bring Yoosung down around midnight, and send him off.”

“You’re not going with him, Saeran,” Saeyoung said. Saeran knew what he was saying. He didn’t want to lose him. They had already nearly been separated, when Saeran overdosed a couple years before.

“Saeyoung, I know you’re scared, but you have to trust me. I… I don’t want to be without you, but I don’t want to be without him, either.” With a mutual glance at Zen, Saeyoung understood.

“Fine. But only until this is all cleared up. Then I want you to stay up here.”

“I’m only going to have a week or two, anyway. Can you find them out and get them off our backs in that time?”

“Absolutely.” Saeyoung went to his room, intending to prepare what he needed to hack in and take their eyes off Jumin’s home for awhile.

 

It was Tuesday, and Saeran had a problem. In the time that they had been going over things, he had found something to give up. He didn’t feel like he particularly needed to feel heat, so he figured he would give up his sense of thermal energies. That would help, right?

Even so, would that mean that he wouldn’t be able to feel the warmth from Yoosung’s fingers anymore? He didn’t know, and the stars that were over his head held no answers for him. Maybe he could ask Yoosung what it was like to be half blind all the time.

He pulled into the parking lot of Jumin’s building, ready to go to the ocean already. Yoosung saw his car pull in, and ran out to him.

“We got the okay from Saeyoung earlier, saying that we could leave the building,” Yoosung said, getting into the car. Jumin followed behind him.

“It’s good to see you, Saeran,” Jumin said. “How have you been?”

“Good, considering we’re being hunted because we know merpeople exist.” Saeran left the parking lot. Zen was probably already at their meeting place, waiting for them to arrive. Yoosung was usually excited to be in the car, since it meant an adventure, but this time, he was just staring out the window. Saeran could tell he was nervous.

“You don’t have to worry, Yoosung. We’ll take care of this.”

“I know, but what if something happens to you while I’m gone?”

“Didn’t Saeyoung tell you? I’m going under with you.”

“I didn’t tell him that. I thought it would be a nice surprise for him when we reached the water’s edge,” Jumin said.

“You’re really coming with me?” Yoosung asked. Saeran nodded, then realized that he couldn’t see him on that side.

“Yeah, I am.” And there he was, excited as always.

“It’ll be fun, you’ll see! I can show you all of my favorite places to go!”

“I can’t wait.”

The beach was completely deserted, aside from a single motorcycle in the parking lot. Saeran pulled in next to it, and the three of them went to the rocks. Jumin was carrying a bag that clinked. They reached the rocks, seeing Zen waiting for them, as Saeran had suspected.

“I’ll get the circle drawn,” Jumin said.

“It’ll be nice to have another friend in the water. I’m sorry it had to be under such circumstances,” Zen said, “especially with that jerk performing the spell.”

“At least I can perform,” Jumin shot back, calm and collected as ever. Zen looked ready to punch him. Jumin drew the circle, setting up the ingredients needed for the spell, then gestured to Saeran. He stepped into the magic circle, waiting for things to happen as Jumin cast it. A mist slowly enveloped him, staying with the confines of the circle.

It hurt. It hurt a lot, more than he was expecting. Saeran screamed loudly. His skin was peeling back, and scales were growing in rapidly to cover his body. His legs bound themselves together, reforming into a tail, from which scales also grew painfully. Saeran blacked out.

 

“How long before we make it back to the city?”

“Well, the current doesn’t run at this time of year, so it’s going to take a long time,” Zen said.

“You know a lot about the currents around here,” Yoosung said.

“I have to, in order to make it to the surface and back without trouble.” The two of them had Saeran between them, an arm thrown over each shoulder. His tail was a lovely shade of gold. Yoosung liked how it looked, especially with his dorsal fin’s waviness. It wasn’t just short and practical, like Yoosung’s, and sailed in the current like it had a life of its own. Even his piercings had been moved into his ear fins.

Saeran hadn’t woken up yet from the initial spell change, but that was alright. He always looked somewhat annoyed when he was awake. It was a nice change of pace to see him look so peaceful. Yoosung watched his face, smiling.

“You really like him, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Yoosung said. It was true. Since he had first seen Saeran in the ship several weeks ago, he had had a feeling that Saeran was something special. Maybe not for the whole world, but definitely for Yoosung.

“I hope it works out for you two,” Zen said.

“I should be saying that to you, since you’re with Saeyoung.”

“… How much do you know?” Zen seemed suspicious. Yoosung shrugged.

“You have his scent all over you, so I’m guessing you’ve… uh… gotten together.”

“A few times.”

“Scent doesn’t get that strong for ‘a few times.’”

“Alright, fine! We’ve been together nearly every night I’m on the surface! Usually it’s in my dressing room at the theater.”

“Oh my god,” Yoosung said, laughing. Zen sighed in exasperation, an embarrassed blush covering his face. His hair was a lot shorter. He had explained it away, after they had jumped in the water, saying that he had just wanted it to be shorter, but Yoosung knew that that was a lie. He loved having long hair, said it flowed nicely in the water, with all of its curling.

“Zen.”

“What?”

“What really happened to your hair?”

“I’m not sure what I can say. Saeyoung said we can’t risk an information leak, but… I got it caught at one point, and the only option I really had was to cut off my ponytail.”

“It looks nice.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah! You look good with shorter hair. It could use more than a rush job to fix up, but it still suits you. Lucky bass.”

“Who’s a lucky bastard?” Saeran slurred.

“A what?”

“It’s a swear, Yoosung. How’re you feeling?” Zen asked.

“Everything hurts...”

“It will, for awhile. Don’t worry, it wears off. Try swimming. We’re in pretty smooth water right now, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Zen and Yoosung let go of Saeran, who floated where he was as he tried to figure out where his tail was in the mess of pain that was his body.

He took a tentative kick forward, finding the movement natural with his tail and fins. Yoosung swam in front of him, and Saeran followed his lead as they moved forward to the mer city that rested in the black deep.

“So, how far is this place, anyway?” Saeran asked.

“It’s far. We’ll be swimming for most of the day.” Zen came up beside him, his kicks languid.

“Most of the day?”

“It’s about dawn, now,” Yoosung said. Saeran noticed that his swimming style was a lot less smooth than Zen’s. Saeran figured that his was probably worse than both of theirs. He spread his fingers wide, like Yoosung did, and moved them up and down in time with his tail. He gained speed.

“This is more fun than I thought it would be.”

“It’s fun to try something new, right?” Yoosung looked back at him and smiled. His eyes were fully violet, and his teeth were sharp and pointy. Saeran grinned back at him, causing Yoosung’s eyes to go wide.

“What is it?” Saeran asked.

“Hold up a sec. Open your mouth,” Yoosung requested. Saeran did so, and Yoosung looked at his teeth. “This is so rare! We hardly ever see anyone with a shark set.”

“He’s got a shark set?”

“What does that mean?”

“You have five rows of teeth!” Zen swam up to look inside Saeran’s mouth. He was not okay with this, and shooed Yoosung, closing his mouth resolutely.

“You really have five rows of teeth?” Saeran ran his tongue around his mouth, counting the rows carefully. He nodded.

After the discovery of that little fact, Yoosung talked about how different mers have different types of attributes that kind of decide how they can live their lives. Most of it was about what they were able to eat, or how fast they could move. Normal things, Saeran supposed. Some of it was arbitrary and ancient ruling, like where a person could live or stuff like that, which Yoosung said his city didn’t really bother with.

Thus, Saeran discovered that Yoosung had teeth like an angler fish, which was really good at trapping and serrating fish. He also discovered what that looked like when they took him hunting as a school passed by. It was pretty gory all around.

Zen had smaller teeth, but no less sharp, and certainly not useless. He caught his prey and managed to swallow it on the spot. Saeran had to admit, he was impressed. He could barely taste his prey until it hit the back of his mouth.

“Sounds like you also have a shark’s tongue,” Yoosung said.

 

It was the first time he met Jaehee. He had known about her, as the robotic assistant of Jumin Han, but then she had quit and left town. Saeran hadn’t realized at the time that “going into the ocean” counted as “going out of town.”

She had brown hair and eyes, as well as a brown tail that shone bronze in the dim light. Saeran felt like she had a warmer atmosphere than one might at first assume. Maybe it was just warmer than him. Even at this depth, when he knew that he would normally feel like he could be freezing, he couldn’t feel any sort of heat or cold.

The four of them went to Zen’s place. His shell, as it turned out, was an actual shell.

“What.” Saeran was astounded.

“What?” Yoosung asked. Then he looked up at the shell. “Oh. Yeah, it’s not like home, is it? This is what we use. I heard that in the deep cities, they have architecture more like what you find on the surface.”

“Cool.” They went inside, and Saeran was immediately assaulted by the sight of a messy shell. There was seaweed everywhere. He wasn’t even sure how someone would manage to get that much seaweed in a place. Not that he was one to say anything: his room was covered in clothes and wrappers, and even though it was weird to him how much there was, he knew it was all from him.

Saeran didn’t ask about the seaweed. Zen didn’t say anything about it, just started grabbing it and putting it elsewhere. Yoosung and Jaehee drifted onto a smaller giant shell that seemed to be some sort of couch thing.

“So, what do we do? We have Yoosung and Zen out of immediate danger, but it’s not exactly as though we can just talk to Saeyoung,” Saeran said. Jaehee looked over at him.

“Saeyoung is involved in this, as well?”

“Yeah.” Jaehee just nodded, then looked to Zen, who had come to join them on the shell couch thing.

“What happened while Yoosung was missing?”

“It’s a long story, but I guess we have time, huh? Alright. After Yoosung went missing, I asked Saeyoung if he knew where he was. Saeyoung said that he knew, and that Yoosung was safe. Then, we met at a carnival. Suddenly, I’m helping them keep Yoosung safe because someone is hunting him down.”

“Hunting him?”

“There’s an organization looking to capture mers who’ve reached land, or to make mers go to land. As far as Saeyoung and I can tell, that’s what they do.”

“Strange. Yoosung, how was your adventure?”

“It was awesome! I met Saeran in a sunken ship, and then he ended up almost drowning, so I saved him. Then we talked a lot, and I told him that I wanted to see the land, so he and Saeyoung brought me to Jumin, and I was able to become human. It was painful, and it’s been hard work learning everything I need to know in order to pass in human society, but it’s been a lot of fun, too! We went to an aquarium, and I got to see those rare red fish. That’s where the trouble started, though.”

“We?” Jaehee asked.

“I took him. I also took him to the carnival, which is where we met Zen. He got a giant star plush.”

“Starfish.”

“Right, starfish.”

“And you got your ears pierced?”

“Yep! It’ll be awhile before I can put anything into them, though, I think.”

“You should have been able to start a real pair this week, but that’s not really happening. Next time, though. We’ll put your new earrings in.” Yoosung smiled, his earfins widening with happiness. Saeran thought it was adorable. He felt his own earfins fluttering open a bit, as well.

Jaehee watched the two of them, and smiled to herself. She looked over at Zen, who simply nodded.

“Well, we can discuss our plans in the morning. For now, it’s late, and since the current doesn’t run at this time of year, the three of you must be tired. You should go and rest.”

“Alright,” Yoosung said, lifting himself easily. Saeran followed. Zen had a spare room in his shell for guests, somehow. Yoosung said that his only had a room for himself.

“There’s only one bed in here,” Saeran said. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to share a bed with anyone. It had been awkward enough when Saeyoung climbed into his bed last month. What would it be like when he was sharing it with Yoosung?

There was definitely a problem, and Saeran was 100% not jumping at the chance to cuddle Yoosung in the night.

Yoosung didn’t see any sort of problem. He just laid down in a bed of fluffy looking algae stuff, shifting to one side so that Saeran could join him. Zen drifted by once they settled in.

“Night,” he said.

“Good night,” the two of them chorused. Saeran had a feeling that Zen was going to come back around the corner.

“It’s not serious, just roll with it,” Saeran said, flipping to cover Yoosung’s body a bit, and holding his head with his finned hands.

“And no funny business!” Zen said, poking his head inside the door. Saeran turned to look at him, and Yoosung did the same. Zen pursed his lips.

“Well, there go my plans for the night,” Saeran said.

“Way to kill the mood, Zen.”

“Not in my shell.” Saeran smirked, then settled calmly next to Yoosung.

“Is this okay?”

“That’s fine.” Zen left them alone, going down the hallway. A few minutes later, Saeran was sure he wasn’t going to come back. Then he started laughing quietly. He looked over to Yoosung, who was looking at him unhappily.

“What’s the matter?”

“That was mean. Playing with me like that.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Yoosung smiled in his bright way. Then he got a thoughtful look on his face.

“Of course, nothing says that we can’t do that.” Saeran jumped back in surprise before getting pinned to the cushy algae stuff by Yoosung, who weighed more than he realized under the water. Yoosung rolled his body from chest to tail fin, pressing it against Saeran’s like a wave.

Saeran tried really hard not to be turned on by the move. Really, really hard.

He failed miserably. Blood rushed to his face, into his ears, and then started moving down his neck as Yoosung’s eyes bore into him, seeking out every part of him that wanted this and forcing it to the surface. Even so, his mind won out.

“We can do this tomorrow. For now, we should rest. Besides, Zen’s gonna have a sea cow if he hears us,” Saeran whispered. Yoosung bit his lip, then nodded, rolling off.

“I think you’re acclimating well. Sea cow,” Yoosung said. Saeran chuckled, and Yoosung joined him. Their laughter got louder, until Yoosung almost started howling. There was a loud bang on the wall, and Zen telling them to shut up.

“Good night, Yoosung.”

“Good night, Saeran.”

 

The next morning was full of Yoosung showing Saeran around his favorite places. They went out to the hunting grounds, where lots of fish lived, and caught breakfast. Saeran attracted attention there, both for his rare teeth, and the amount of metal in his face. He could suddenly feel every piercing: the ones in his brow, in his nose, in his lips, and the one in his tongue, as well as the ones now stretched across his ear fins.

He was suddenly quite glad that mers didn’t have outward reproductive organs.

After breakfast, and figuring out his backstory on the spot, Saeran and Yoosung went to hang out with some of his friends. He played games, one of which included swimming with a ball across an open and marked expanse on the ocean floor. Saeran was good at that one. None of the others had the powerful kick that he had when he was launching the ball at the goal.

Yoosung showed him his own shell, which they weren’t allowed to live in for the moment, for whatever reason. Saeran didn’t really understand.

“I figured out that this is a phone after you showed me yours,” Yoosung said, picking up a clearly dead-forever phone sitting by his bed. Saeran started identifying objects that he knew around the shell. Yoosung was excited the entire time, happy to finally be able to put names to objects.

“This has been really fun. How long do you think it’s going to be?” Yoosung asked.

“I don’t know. It’ll probably be a week or two, I think. Saeyoung’s quick, but he also needs to be thorough.”

“I see. So, then, I could bring you to see all sorts of stuff! We could go collecting!”

“That sounds great,” Saeran said. The more they moved around, the less likely it would be for them to be found. Of course, they also ran the risk of being caught while moving around, but still. A moving target is harder to catch than one standing still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so there are going to be two chapters next week because the next one in line is smut, and if you don't want to read that, there will still be a smut-free chapter to read (looking at you, mom.)
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D
> 
> and also if you have any ideas on how fish have sex, please share.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sex here. if you don't want to read it, move onto the next one.

Saeran watched Yoosung swim around his room excitedly, his purple tail making small waves as he pointed out different human objects for Saeran to identify. Doing so required little effort, since they were mostly recent objects. Some, however, were fairly old, and Saeran could only guess as to what their purposes might have been. 

Finally, he decided enough was enough. He was still turned on from last night, and knowing that no one was around this time became the reason that broke Saeran’s last wall against pinning Yoosung down.

“Well, now you know about human objects,” Saeran growled, pushing Yoosung against the wall. He leaned in close, locking eyes with Yoosung. “Time for me to learn about mer anatomy.” Their lips came together roughly. Yoosung grinned, cupping Saeran’s jaw with both of his hands.

“If you want to learn,” he forced them into several somersaults until Saeran was dizzy and vaguely aware of the floor against his back, “then I should teach you properly.” Yoosung’s eyes darkened, and he pressed Saeran into the floor. His tongue swiped at Saeran’s lower lip, then slipped inside as he gasped. Again, their lips came together, melding into each other.

Saeran felt himself starting to lose air, and tried to adjust. His gills fluttered, and he was able to breathe without his mouth. It was a strange sensation, but it heightened what Yoosung was doing with his tongue. Yoosung ran a hand along his gill slits, causing Saeran to jump and moan into his mouth. Then the purple tailed mer rolled his body like a wave, inciting nerves all along Saeran’s body.

“H-how are you so good…?” Saeran gasped. His earfins opened wide and shut tight as Yoosung moved down his neck.

“Instinct,” Yoosung breathed against Saeran’s gills. Saeran moaned. He squirmed as air intake became difficult, then his breath hitched when Yoosung brushed against that spot on his neck. A finned hand snaked into Yoosung’s hair, gripping tightly as he started to kiss and suck. His small, numerous teeth felt amazing against Saeran’s skin. He wondered what this would feel like if he were human, instead of mer.

Yoosung kept a hand on the floor, holding onto the smooth surface as best he could. It would be easier in the algae bed. He leaned back, grinning as Saeran whined, hooking a finger under the gold tail’s chin and coaxing him to the bed, hitting his fins with every kick ever so lightly. Then he pinned Saeran down again, getting back to work on his neck.

Saeran flipped Yoosung over, determined to make him feel good. Yoosung took the top again.

“Sorry, I’m in control today.” Light was coming in from outside, highlighting Yoosung’s hair around his head like a halo, illuminating his lust-filled eyes. Saeran stopped fighting to top as a coil tightened in his abdomen. Yoosung brushed his fingers over larger gills on Saeran’s sides, causing him to cry out in pleasure. Saeran’s tail accidentally kicked up, hitting Yoosung gently in the nerves he had exploited in the cistern. Yoosung groaned.

“Did that feel good?” Saeran asked huskily. Yoosung nodded, then dropped to Saeran’s stomach, planting kisses across his chest and abdomen, sucking wherever Saeran squirmed and shifted. He looked at his handiwork, tracing each bite mark as it appeared. Saeran bit back a whine.

“Don’t hold back your noises. Especially now.” Yoosung dug his fingertips between Saeran’s skin and the belt to his tail, dragging them from the front to the back. His hands worked over the belt, moving to Saeran’s ass. He grabbed it hard, forcing Saeran to jolt up into him. One hand moved to Saeran’s back, Yoosung’s lips capturing his in a heated kiss as the other hand pulled Saeran closer, their hips grinding into each other. Yoosung felt his cock unsheathing as the promise of release came nearer. He could see Saeran’s coming out, too.

“Flip over,” Yoosung said. Saeran did so, and Yoosung prodded at his ass until he found Saeran’s entrance. He opened it as painlessly as he could. Saeran moaned when he did so. One finger slipped its way in, impeded by the webbing. Yoosung moved the rest in as Saeran shuddered beneath him. When the hole was wide enough, Yoosung brought his cock close.

“Ready?” he asked, resting at the edge.

“Yes. Hurry,” Saeran said. Yoosung slid his cock into him, enjoying the feeling of Saeran’s tight walls around him. Saeran’s gills opened wide and snapped shut over and over as he gasped for breath. Yoosung held onto his hips while Saeran gripped the algae. Its silkiness caressed Saeran’s chest as Yoosung pulled back, then slammed into him. Their tails moved in tandem as Yoosung pounded Saeran as hard as he could.

Saeran felt his own cock twitching, the piercing embedded in the head jostling his nerves just right. He moaned loudly, looked back at Yoosung, then his eyes rolled back in pleasure. Yoosung went faster, setting a killer pace. He felt his orgasm coming, and bent over Saeran, pressing his chest to the other’s back.

“Would you rather inside or out?” Yoosung asked.

“Ins-s-ide,” Saeran stuttered. Yoosung grinned, increasing his pace more, until he started to lose his rhythm. He came hard inside Saeran, moaning as he did so. It was almost enough for Saeran, but not quite. Yoosung pulled out, flipped his lover over, and saw that Saeran still needed some help. He ran a fingertip along Saeran’s jaw, down his neck and stomach, then reached the base of his cock. Saeran moaned.

Yoosung licked up the shaft, gripping the base as he did so. He played with the slit. Saeran squirmed underneath him, bucking up. Yoosung held his hip again so he couldn’t move. He lapped at the piercing, moving it around a bit, eliciting a string of moans and swears from Saeran.

“Ohh, fuck that feels so good, shit---” he tried to thrust again.

“Look at me, Saeran,” Yoosung said. Saeran did so, looking directly into Yoosung’s violet eyes as the blond put his mouth on Saeran’s cock and swallowed it in one go. He didn’t break contact as he started bobbing up and down. When he moved, his body undulated against Saeran’s tail. Yoosung moaned against Saeran’s cock, pressing the flat of his tongue against it.

“Yoosung, I --- I’m gonna ---”

“Come for me,” Yoosung said. He took Saeran’s length into his mouth again, humming on the way down. Saeran came violently into his mouth, arching off the bed and moaning loudly as he felt Yoosung swallow his cum. His vision went white as his orgasm was extended.

The next thing he knew, Saeran was resting on the algae again, Yoosung snuggled up next to him, and his cock safely tucked away underneath his scales again. He looked at Yoosung, who was looking at him, and smiled. Yoosung smiled back.

“How was that?” he asked.

“Next time we’re on land, I’m topping,” Saeran replied.


	13. Chapter 13

After Yoosung had shown Saeran everything in his shell, they headed outside. It was evening, and there was a performance that night. Apparently, Zen was going to be performing. They headed down to see what the play was, settling into the front row with Jaehee.

“I see you two are close,” she said. Yoosung blushed.

“Uh, yeah, we are.”

“I’m glad. You two are good together.” Saeran smiled, putting an arm around Yoosung’s shoulder. He laid back, bringing Yoosung with him. As they lounged together, the curtains went up, revealing two actors, both painted to look like clownfish.

“No way,” Saeran muttered. Yoosung looked at him curiously, but he didn’t want to ruin his fun, so Saeran stayed quiet. Sure enough, the clownfish, one of whom he could see was Zen, had a bunch of eggs, and then there was one. That egg was named Nemo. Saeran bit his lip to keep from talking.

At the end of the play, the three main characters were back in the first setting, having found each other. Saeran heard a mother nearby tell her child that that was one of the reasons why they never approached the shore. That was where humans were, and humans were dangerous. Saeran couldn’t really refute her, and stayed silent. He and Yoosung swam over to Zen after the play, waiting for the crowd that had gathered around him to disperse a bit.

“Zen, that was better than last time! How long until you get a new play to perform?” Yoosung asked. Zen shrugged.

“It’s up to the director.”

“Is the director another drifting mer?” Saeran asked. “Because that was literally Finding Nemo.” Zen stared at him in shock, then grabbed his hand and swam off with him behind the stage.

“Don’t tell anyone. If people realize that some of us are drifters, our production team will be ruined.”

“Got it. Staying quiet with this one.”

“Also, you weren’t in my shell, were you?”

“What?”

“I can smell Yoosung on you. Please tell me you weren’t in my shell.”

“How angry would you be if we were?” Saeran asked, smirking. Zen glared at him, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing hard.

“Angry,” he said.

“We weren’t in your shell. Yoosung wanted to show me some stuff that he’s collected in his own home, and then we fucked. Your shell is safe.” Saeran understood, though. Zen had his personal space, and it would be a massive invasion of privacy to have sex in it.

“Good. And...”

“And?”

“I’m glad that you’re here for him. He needs someone to care for in his life. He’s been alone for way too long, honestly.”

“Yeah? Guess that explains his experience. He was probably just doing to me what he does to himself, huh?” Zen’s cheeks turned red.

“Yeah,” he said. Saeran nodded. He figured as much.

“You said that some of the cast have ‘drifted.’ Yoosung told me that’s when a mer goes to the land. Are any of them a part of the group that’s after Yoosung?”

“I don’t think so. If they are, that’ll be a problem, since they can communicate with the fish in the aquarium. One of them has my hair.”

“Then we could be compromised right now. I think we need to figure out where we’re going to go next.”

“Right. But we can’t just keep running away,” Zen said. Saeran thought for a moment. Then an idea struck him.

“We can go find Rika. Not Yoosung, obviously. But you and Jaehee could just go and visit whatever deep city she moved to, since Saeyoung got the coordinates. You can do a recon scan, and in the meantime, I can take Yoosung off somewhere else that they won’t think to look.”

“You’re pretty smart, you know?”

“I know. I’ve lived with and outdone Saeyoung on multiple occasions.” They went back to the other two, then headed to Zen’s shell. On the way, they were approached by another mer, who was a part of the performance.

“Hey, Zen! A friend of mine dropped off some tasty fish. You want some?”

“Sure! That sounds good,” Zen said. “Bring them to my shell, alright?”

“Done deal!” The other mer swam off, and Saeran and Jaehee looked at Zen like he was crazy.

“What?” he asked.

“You know that anyone could be a spy at this point. We just don’t know.”

“He’s safe, and if he’s not, I’ll set him straight.” They moved on, though Saeran wasn’t convinced. The best spies were capable of hiding easily.

At Zen’s shell, the four of them were joined by the other mer, who introduced himself as Jikyook. He did have very tasty fish. Saeran bit into one, and it was like an explosion of flavor on his tongue. It was an odd experience, since he often found fish to be fairly bland, rather than anything to write home about.

“What kind of fish is this?” he asked.

“It’s one from farther south,” Jikyook said. “It’s good, right?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“So which reef are you from?”

“Me? I’m here visiting Jaehee, actually. We used to live in the same reef.”

“That’s right. He’s a childhood friend,” Jaehee said. Zen nodded, and Yoosung occupied himself with fish.

“Cool. Maybe I should come visit you, sometime.”

“It’s pretty far away,” Saeran said. Jikyook had a look in his eyes like he knew something was up, or like he was plotting something. The conversation continued, seemingly innocuous, but Saeran could tell that Jikyook was suspicious of him.

That night, after the other mer had left, Saeran decided to follow him. Yoosung tried to go with him, but Saeran managed to convince him to stay behind. This was something better done alone. Saeran swam along as quietly as he could, trying to figure out where the mer was going. He couldn’t make heads or tails of Jikyook’s pattern, though.

As they swam all through town, there seemed to be no definitive direction that Jikyook was going. Saeran kept following him, until they ended up in a deserted part of town. There, another mer emerged, coming out between two shells. Saeran hid nearby and listened in on their conversation.

“So? What’s the report?”

“I wasn’t able to get much out of them. However, the humer Jaehee apparently has a friend visiting her. He said they’re from the same reef. Could he be one, too?”

“It’s possible. What about Yoosung? Did you see him? Our boss is very interested in him.”

“Yes, he was there. He didn’t say much, but he was in the ocean. Are you sure that they saw him up on the surface?”

“I’m sure. He was at the aquarium base. Was Zen there, as well?”

“Yes.” Saeran held his breath, trying to make as little noise as possible. He knew that Jikyook was a spy! It was so obvious, but Zen had missed it.

“Then they’re both drifters. We need to bring them in to make sure they don’t cause trouble between humans and mers.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The other mer presumably left, and Jikyook swam past Saeran, going in a different direction from where he had come from. Saeran waited until he was out of sight, then swam as fast for Zen’s shell as he possibly could.

 

“How could I have been so stupid!?” Zen yelled. He slammed his fist onto the table, cracking it slightly.

“It’s okay, Zen,” Jaehee said.

“No, it’s not okay! I put you in danger because I thought that he was my friend. Why did I think that he wouldn’t betray us? I’m so stupid!”

“Even if you hadn’t brought him in, he still would have found out, probably by eavesdropping outside the door, and then he would have gotten even more information, since we would have thought ourselves safe. Anyway, I think they’ll be watching this shell, now. That means we need to leave. We can’t get trapped here,” Saeran said. Jaehee nodded.

“Take Yoosung east of here. It’ll be safer there. You should be able to find plenty of places to hide out, and it’s not like food is a problem right now.”

“Right. You two need to find a place to hide, as soon as possible. Going to the deep city is no longer an option.”

“We’ll go back to the surface. It’s about time for me to surface, anyway,” Jaehee said.

“You should get moving, then,” Zen said. He pushed off the shell couch, then ran his webbed fingers through his hair in exasperation. “I am such an idiot!”

“We’ll get this figured out somehow, Zen. Don’t worry,” Yoosung said. Then he grabbed Saeran and swam off.

 

Zen and Jaehee meandered toward the surface, coming out of the dark and into the light. The moon was shining overhead, distilled by the waves as they moved to and fro.

“It’s beautiful down here,” Jaehee said. She flipped onto her back to watch the sky. Zen kept an eye on her and where they were going, so that they didn’t lose their way.

“It really is. I never realized how lucky I was to live under the water until I had the chance to go above it,” Zen said. “As much as I love my life above the sea level, I wouldn’t miss being here for the world.”

“Sometimes I feel like I should still be on land. Maybe I’ll move back in. Or go to a different town, where no one knows me. I’ll still be close to the ocean, but it’d be nice to just… find someone and settle down in a more familiar environment.”

“You really want to leave?”

“Not particularly. But I feel like my life is empty down here. It seems I can’t hit a happy medium. Anyway, I’m looking forward to my first cup of coffee in a month.”

“It’ll taste good, that’s for sure. We’re going to have to wait for either Jumin or Saeyoung to show up and bring us to safety. With those people from the aquarium watching us, I don’t feel safe without one or the other being around.”

“You? Safe around Jumin? That’s a new one.” Jaehee looked over at Zen and laughed. She turned back onto her stomach, kicking her tail lazily behind her.

“Right? Ah, but this all has me scared for my life. I’m thinking I’ll go and live with Saeyoung until this blows over.”

“That sounds good. I suppose I can only really go to Jumin’s place. I don’t really know anyone else well enough to show up out of the blue.”

Jaehee watched as Zen swam. His ponytail had been nice, while it lasted, but with his hair shorter --- and trimmed to regularity --- it flowed that much more nicely in the water. She wondered how much of Zen’s swimming Saeyoung had seen. He had probably seen quite a bit. If she remembered correctly, he had a revitalized interest in diving after meeting Zen.

They reached the shore sometime around dawn, after catching a late season current that led them. Zen emerged onto shore, drying his hands off as quickly as he could before looking around the rocks they had surfaced at for a phone that he had left behind. He found it soon after and dialed Saeyoung.

“Hey, one of my troupe members sold us out. Jaehee and I are at the rocks. Saeran and Yoosung have gone into hiding down below... Yeah... Yeah... As soon as possible, preferably. Is Vanderwood nearby?... Okay. Can’t you come and get me yourself? Fine. I’ll see you soon.” Zen hung up, setting the phone on a dry spot, then lifted himself up out of the water. Jaehee joined him soon after.

“Isn’t this dangerous? Just sitting here out in the open?”

“Probably.” They slipped back down, and Zen drifted to the sand. “I feel like such an idiot. Saeyoung is so good at this stuff, and I’m so… not. Look at me. I’ve messed up twice in the past twelve hours.”

“That’s true, but it’s no reason to beat yourself up. Plenty of people have made mistakes before. You’re not the first, and this isn’t the worst mistake to be made.”

“You guys keep supporting me, but I feel like I need to do more to help, and less making mistakes.”

“I know how you feel,” Jaehee said.

“How could you?” Zen looked over at her as her face hardened into stone.

“I’ve been down here in the ocean the entire time this has been happening, unable to do anything. Then you all come along suddenly, and I’m trying to figure out what’s happened and what to do next, but I can’t come up with any sort of solution.”

“Jaehee, I didn’t realize. I’m sorry,” Zen said. Then he laughed bitterly. “I guess we’re both pretty useless, huh? Can’t do much for anyone.”

“Yeah.” Jaehee laid out on the sand next to Zen, waiting for someone to show up for them.

 

Yoosung led Saeran along old shifting paths to a warren of caves in a rock outcropping. They dove into the passages, careful not to disturb them too much. Even under the water, massive amounts of weight are deadly and crushing. Neither of them had plans to die.

As they swam along, Yoosung kept looking back at Saeran, trying to gauge how he was feeling about all of this. It was his fault, after all, that they were leaving everything behind like this. It wasn’t the end, as far as they knew, but it wasn’t fair, either. Saeran had joined him in the water to keep him safe. He was going away from his brother, his twin.

Yoosung felt horrible about it. He tried not to let it show, but he was sure that it did. Even so, he kept swimming forward. There was no other way that they could go.

Eventually, they reached a large cavern inside the passages, where air had gotten trapped inside. Saeran surfaced, enjoying the non-watery air he was breathing.

“I never thought it was possible to miss air so much,” he said. Yoosung grinned.

“Weird to be out of your normal environment, huh?”

“Yeah. How did you manage it for so long?” Saeran asked.

“It took a bit, but the studying helped to distract me. That, and I was able to take baths.”

“I see. You could submerge in water.”

“Yep. And now you get to breathe real air.”

“Yeah.” Saeran took a deep breath, filling his lungs with oxygen. Yoosung did the same, closing his eyes. He leaned back and started floating around, enjoying having a moment to simply stay still and do nothing. Saeran floated next to him, taking his hand.

“What are we?” he asked.

“Lovers?” Yoosung ventured. It made sense to him. He liked Saeran, and they had had sex. That made them lovers, right?

“Or… boyfriends?”

“Boyfriends… I like it. My boyfriend, Saeran.”

“My boyfriend, Yoosung.” They smiled at each other, sliding under the water. Yoosung giggled, then laughed loudly and happily. He spun around with Saeran, holding both of his hands and going as fast as he could.

Saeran pulled him into his arms, then into a kiss. Yoosung deepened it, felt the sand under their tails, and he could see affection in Saeran’s eyes like he hadn’t encountered before.

“I love you,” Saeran said.

“I love you, too,” Yoosung said. They kissed again, and Saeran laid Yoosung on the floor. Yoosung kissed him, sliding his tongue into Saeran’s mouth, feeling the rows of teeth as he went.

“We should get some sleep,” Saeran said, pulling back. Yoosung nodded. They settled into the bottom, content that no mer would find them so deep in the passages.

Yoosung could feel Saeran’s heart beating against his chest. He rested his head on Saeran, closing his eyes. Saeran simply laid there, his breath slowly becoming deep and even.

 

“This is a complete mess,” Saeyoung muttered. He avoided another shoddy firewall, sidestepping it easily on his way into the aquarium server. Last time he was in there, he had seen something very interesting. It was a folder, tucked deep away and made invisible at some point, but he had seen it. He was going in to get it.

The safety surrounding the aquarium’s system was a mess. Half the defense coding wasn’t even finished, and whatever they had put up for firewalls were little more than cardboard. Saeyoung sighed. Hardly anyone nowadays knew how to make it hard for a hacker. They were all about making a show of things, instead of creating substance.

He got the file and left.

Then he realized that the shoddy workmanship was a ploy. A small bit of malware had followed him home, and it was starting to attack his computer. Saeyoung saved the folder to an external flashdrive and ejected it, then started work on debugging. With the folder safe, he felt like taking care of a tiny malware would be easy.

As it turned out, whoever coded the security had put all of their chips into the little bugger. That explained quite a bit. For one, it had been harder beforehand. For another, no one was that stupid. Saeyoung hit himself in the head, then kept hacking.

His phone rang, and he picked it up to answer.

“Zen! Hey… Is that so? But you’re safe? When would you like to come up?… Vanderwood’s out right now, watching the aquarium. I’ll send someone to you… I’m sorry, I’m in the middle of something right now… See you.” Saeyoung hung up, then focused all of his attention on the malware.

After about ten minutes of yelling at it and coding as hard as he could, Saeyoung had every trace of the punk off his computer. He smiled triumphantly, then remembered Zen and Jaehee. Oops.

“Gotta go, then. I should bring you along,” he said to the flashdrive. He tucked it into his pocket, then grabbed his keys and headed to the beach.

It was a nice morning. The sun was rising over the ocean to the east, which was thankfully not where Saeyoung was going. He made his way south, parking in the usual lot, then went down to the rocks with a few towels. On the way, he saw someone leave the beach surreptitiously.

“Welp. Fuck,” he muttered. That would be a problem. Oh, well. Nothing to do about it. He didn’t have the strength to run places, and besides, Zen and Jaehee needed him to save them. Saeyoung hurried to the rocks.

“God Seven is here to save the day! And it’s barely even begun.”

“Thought you said you were in the middle of something,” Zen said. Saeyoung shrugged.

“I finished it. I also got an interesting file to look at later. Here, I have towels.” He tossed the towels onto the rocks, as Zen and Jaehee dried off.

“Jaehee, I’ll dry off first and leave so you can have privacy,” Zen said.

“That would be best, dear Jaehee,” Saeyoung said, pushing up his glasses. “I’ll go and keep watch. There are some lowlifes around here.”

“I’m not sure if I should trust you...” Jaehee muttered. She shrugged and waited in the water as Zen dried himself off, then, when his legs returned, wrapped his towel around his waist and left the area. Jaehee dried herself off quickly, coming out to meet them soon after.

“Are we ready to go?” she asked. Saeyoung nodded, and they went back to the car.

“Sorry I forgot to bring clothes, Jaehee. Where are we going first?”

“It’s alright. I’m going to stay with Jumin. I’ve already called him and made arrangements. I’m sure Elizabeth will be pleased to see me,” Jaehee said. She could already feel the cat hair as it clung to her body.

“I’m sure she will be. I wish I could see my dear Elly, but I need to get home and analyze this file as soon as I can.”

“Good luck with analyzing it,” Jaehee said.

“Thank you. So, do you know about where the two might have gone?” Saeyoung asked. He felt the need to know his brother was safe.

“I don’t. Yoosung knows the lay of the land better than I do. He’ll find a place for them to hide for a long time. But…”

“But if Saeran doesn’t resurface from time to time, he’ll start to sicken.”

“Yeah. What do we do?”

“We hope that we can track them down when it’s time to surface. That’s all we can hope for.”

 

As the dawn broke high above, Saeran opened his eyes, feeling the need to tell his brother that he was safe. He didn’t know if he could say that truthfully, but he tried to convey the message as best he could telepathically. He felt relief soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stuff's happening pups. i know how it's gonna end, yay


	14. Chapter 14

They had been swimming for some time, looking for one place after another to hide for a bit, unsure if anyone was chasing them, or if they were even searching. It was dark that deep under the water. Saeran wasn’t sure how long it had been, but his body was starting to feel… strange.

“Yoosung,” he said, trying to focus. Yoosung looked back at him, then he was holding Saeran up and swimming fast somewhere. Saeran wasn’t sure where, but he felt like the water was getting brighter. It was a strange sensation. His head ended up in air, and then the rest of his body, and there was soft sand underneath him. The moon was riding in the sky, high above them. Yoosung was fanning him.

“You’re gonna be okay, Saeran. Don’t worry. We’re far from human civilization, so no one’s going to see you, okay? Just… hold on. Hold on,” Yoosung said, trying to dry Saeran off. Saeran watched him with glazed eyes as he wiped water off when his hand dried out. He kept fanning, wishing he had a towel. They made this so much easier.

“Where are we…?” Saeran asked, as Yoosung flipped him onto his stomach so he could start on the back.

“We’re on a beach, somewhere. We’ve gone past most mer cities. This is pretty much the wilderness. Looks like it is for you, too. I wonder why...” There were mountains in the distance. They looked pretty, to say the least. The stars overhead sparkled brightly, and coldly. Yoosung knew that warmth got water to evaporate faster, but the night refused to give him any. If Saeran didn’t transform back soon, he could die.

That wasn’t going to happen, Yoosung decided. He fanned harder, trying to get the water to go away enough that Saeran would go back to being human. Eventually, it worked. Saeran’s body lit up in a flash of light, and his tail disappeared, leaving a pair of legs behind. Yoosung breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you starting to feel better?” Yoosung asked. Saeran looked at him, and nodded. He sat up tentatively, but his body was pretty much back to normal, aside from a weird little bit of fogginess around the edges.

“Yeah, I am.” The fogginess faded, and Saeran stood up, stretching his body and getting his legs back in working order. “Thanks. I would’ve been dead without you, huh?”

“You wouldn’t have been in the ocean without me,” Yoosung said. He kicked his tail fin, laying back on the beach. Saeran joined him, taking Yoosung’s hand in his own. They fell asleep there, calm in the presence of each other. At some point, Yoosung dried off and became a human, and when he did, he entwined his legs in Saeran’s, resting his head on the other’s chest.

 

The dawn came, shining over the beach and leaving shadows from the trees over top of Saeran and Yoosung. The blond shivered, waking up. He raised his head and looked around, seeing the tops of the trees bearing halos as the sun brought the day forth, and smiled. It was a pretty sight. This sort of thing didn’t happen underwater.

The sound of tires screeching also didn’t happen underwater. Yoosung looked around him, trying to locate the source of the sound, and saw a black van off in the distance. He shook Saeran awake.

“Wh…? What is it?” Saeran muttered.

“Black van. Doesn’t look good.” Yoosung pointed to it as surreptitiously as he could, and Saeran looked over. He saw two people come out of the van, armed with what looked like guns. It was hard to see in the shadows. One of them cocked theirs, and Saeran decided that they were not sticking around here.

“Into the ocean, now!” he whispered urgently. Saeran dove into the water, Yoosung right behind him. As they became mers once again, a number of tranquilizer darts made it in after them. They swam deep enough that they couldn’t be reached from the shore, but, as he looked behind him, Saeran saw that the shooters had jumped in after them, becoming mers as well. One of them took aim, getting Yoosung in between his scales.

Yoosung felt his body slowing down around him, and tried to fight the drug. It was no use. He lagged behind Saeran, his body refusing to move like he wanted it to.

“Yoosung!” Saeran shouted. He swam back for Yoosung, grabbing hold of him. One of the hunters swam up and took Yoosung’s tail.

“Let go of him, kid! This doesn’t concern you!” the hunter said.

“You let go!” Saeran flared his fins, opening his mouth and screaming. The hunter screamed back, but backed down as Saeran put more into his intimidation. He let go of Yoosung, and Saeran swam away. The other hunter, however, aimed and shot Saeran in his arm.

He could feel the drug coursing through his veins, forcing his body to stop working properly. Saeran held tight to Yoosung, knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to keep himself awake. They drifted to the bottom.

Nets surrounded them, and Saeran felt himself being dragged away. Before he lost consciousness, he saw Yoosung being dragged away separately.

 

Yoosung’s head hurt when he awoke. He could feel someone stroking his hair, and thought it might be Saeran. When he looked up, however, the face he saw wasn’t that of his lover.

It was Rika.

“Rika!” he shouted, pulling himself up. A wide grin painted his face, and his ear fins opened in excitement. “You’re here.”

“I am, Yoosung. I’m right here, with you,” she said, smiling. Then her face fell into a frown. “I’m so sorry I left you behind without any explanation. It was the only thing I could think of doing.”

“No, it’s okay. Oh, but… I heard that you’re at the center of a mer hunting ring. Is that true?”

“Is that how people are talking about it? That’s not how it is, at all. I’m trying to help any mers who want to go ashore to do so. And, one day, if humans want to come into the water, then I will do that, too. It’s all part of my plan to join our worlds.” She looked like she was close to crying, bringing a hand to her face, trying to keep tears from falling.

“Join our worlds? That sounds really nice,” Yoosung said, hoping he could cheer her up.

“Doesn’t it just? Will you help me, Yoosung?”

“Yeah! But first, I want to see Saeran. He was with me, before I got shot... Did you order them to do that?”

“Are you doubting me? Yoosung, I thought we were close.”

“We are! I’m sorry. They probably went off your orders, huh?”

“Yes, they did.” Her tail flipped in the water, its green color shining in the lights against the walls. Her hair floated around her, framing her beautifully. Sometimes, mers got to see something as pretty as the sun coming through the trees, after all. Yoosung was reminded in that moment why it was that he had wanted to hang out with his cousin.

She was magic, and her plan to help mers and humans coexist was just like her.

“Do you know where Saeran is?” Yoosung asked.

“I do, yes. We gave him his own room, since you two are so close. I wanted him to be treated properly.”

 

Saeran awoke in a strange place. His head felt fuzzy, and he wasn’t sure where he was. There were walls around him, and the ground beneath him was really soft. He looked down and saw the algae that was in Yoosung’s and Zen’s shells. His hand was webbed, he saw, as his fingers ran through the green moss-like stuff.

Looking around more, Saeran could see that there were no decorations in this room. It was a completely different place from where he had been before. He remembered getting hit by a dart, and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Then he had blacked out, and woke up here. Was he a prisoner? It certainly seemed so.

He tried swimming around, looking for a door. He found that there was none --- at least, none visible from his side. Saeran pursed his lips, trying to think of what he could do at that moment. No matter how hard he tried, things seemed to be out of his hands.

After some time, part of the wall opened up, revealing another mer.

“Come on, our leader wants to see you,” the mer said. Saeran had nothing else he could do, no choice in going or not, so he did. He followed the other mer down long halls made of a substance that he didn’t recognize. It wasn’t anything from the surface, nor was it shell. He ran a hand along it, trying to discern what it was, but it was useless. Saeran had never encountered anything like it before.

“Hurry up! We haven’t got all day!”

“Right,” Saeran muttered.

They entered a large room at the end of one of the myriad of hallways. On the other side, sitting on a shell throne, was a blond mer with a green tail. She sat regally, looking down at Saeran and the mer who had led him to that point.

“You’re Saeran?” she asked.

“How do you know my name?” Saeran shot back.

“Yoosung has told me all about you. He said that you’re very close.”

“You… spoke to him?”

“He was here with me, and wants to help me with my plans,” the blond mer said. Saeran figured that she had to be Rika. There was no one else.

“And what are those plans?”

“To bring our worlds together. The mers and the humans can coexist peacefully, and they should. We should all be able to go to paradise, and I plan to create it. A lovely paradise for everyone. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?” It sounded like a nice plan, but Saeran sensed something beneath her words. Whatever she said, he felt he couldn’t fully trust it.

“Why?”

“So that we can understand each others’ cultures, share our technology. Mers have both magic and technology, and I’m sure the humans have plenty of things that we would be interested in. We could all help each other. And wouldn’t it make things better, if we were all friends? We could stop wars, and hatred, and pain.”

“That’s a naive ideal,” Saeran said. “You’ll never stop pain. It just happens. Besides, if you really wanted to stop all pain, you’d stop letting mer become human. That spell’s painful.”

“It’s a small price to pay to get to be warm on the sand,” Rika said, smiling. She could tell that Saeran wasn’t buying her shit. “Tell you what, if you help me, too, then I can let you see Yoosung.”

“Why can’t I see him now?” Saeran asked.

“He’s off doing something for me, now. He should be back when you finish your task.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to stop your brother from hurting the mers on land that are under my care. One of them has died, already, after all, from his snooping.”

“It wasn’t just him, you know. Yoosung and I were there, too.”

“And I forgive you. But I can’t forgive him. He’s still trying to hurt them.” Saeran considered what she had said, and thought that if he could get to the surface, he could tell his brother about this. He’d tell him to stop, but in that certain way that would let Saeyoung know not to actually stop.

“If I do this for you, will you let me come and go?” It would be better, after all, if Yoosung stayed with his cousin. Saeran could visit him every once in a while.

“Of course.”

“Alright. I’ll tell him to stop what he’s doing,” Saeran said, swimming away.

“Good. Oh, and Saeran?”

“What?”

“If you disobey my orders, I will have to punish you. I don’t want to, but I can’t have you messing up my plans, either.”

“Right.” How would she know, anyway?

 

Saeyoung scanned through the file that he had gotten from the database for the hundredth time, trying to find something, anything, that would give him a clue to what the organization was really about. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was doomed to failure. Even so, he had gotten something from his brother a few days ago. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was there, and that made him relieved.

Zen came into his room, and Saeyoung was going to yell at him for disturbing him, until he saw the other person who had arrived, as well: Saeran.

“What are you doing here?” Saeyoung asked. “Where’s Yoosung?” Saeran tried to say something, bit his lip, tried again, and ran his hands through his hair. Saeyoung waved Zen off, then closed the door as his boyfriend left them alone.

“We… we got captured.”

“What!? Then, you escaped? Is he safe?”

“No, we didn’t escape. His cousin, Rika… she was there. She really is in charge of their organization. She said that she wants humans and mer to come together, and coexist peacefully.”

“Seriously? That’s what she wants? From everything I’ve been finding, it seems more sinister than that.”

“What have you found?”

“I’ve found some really weird stuff, but nothing to describe location, or directly referencing the mer themselves. Whoever put this together has created the basic files as a code unto themselves. I’m still trying to figure one thing from another.”

“That means that she’ll have a computer, so that she can access its files from inside. I can try to --- gah!” Saeran’s head started hurting tremendously. Saeyoung looked at him worriedly.

“Has she done something to you?”

“I don’t know. It feels like my head is going to explode...” Saeran clutched his scalp, trying to stop the pain, to no avail. It kept happening. Something in his mind reminded him that he was there to deliver a message, and not to betray Rika.

“I think it’s a kill code. Rika let me come here to deliver a message, said I couldn’t betray her.”

“What is it?”

“She wants you to stop sniffing around the aquarium. You’re getting too close to what she has planned, and she doesn’t like it.” Saeran gave his brother a look. Saeyoung nodded in understanding.

“I see.” With the message delivered, Saeran no longer had a reason to be there. He felt himself being called away.

“I have to go, apparently. See you,” Saeran said. Then he left.

“See you. I’ll find a way to get you back, Saeran,” said Saeyoung. “And your little boyfriend, too. Oh. That made me sound evil.” He laughed dryly, then went back to looking for something. With the knowledge that Rika was building a paradise of some sort, things started to click into place. Saeyoung nodded, watching the information go along much more smoothly and obviously. Rika was a genius, but she wasn’t impervious to the godtier genius of Agent 707.

He had his findings in under an hour, after that. Then Saeyoung called Jumin, having figured out that whatever was making Saeran be under her control had to be a spell, and that that spell had to be some sort of mind control spell.

“Saeyoung, what is it?” Jumin asked, when he picked up.

“Saeran and Yoosung got captured by the organization.”

“What? How do you know this?”

“Saeran came by earlier and told me. He said that Rika is definitely in charge, and she has some sort of mind control spell on him, one that would kill him if he disobeyed.”

“She showed interest in that spell when I was showing her my books a few years ago.”

“I think it’s what killed the mermaid we were talking to in the cistern. She must have been in so much pain, and we just… didn’t know.” Saeyoung held his head, scrunching his eyes as he imagined the pain that Sarah had to have gone through.

“I see. I’ll see if there’s a countercurse. If there is, I’ll perform it as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Jumin.” Saeyoung wandered out of his room, seeing Zen on the couch, watching TV idly. As soon as he came out of his room, Zen looked over at him.

“What happened? Saeran left in a hurry.”

“He has something on his mind that’s making him do stupid things. Jumin’s looking for a way to get it off him.”

“A spell? Who would have cast it? The only person we know is Jumin.”

“Rika.”

“That --- that’s impossible. Rika left. There’s no way… they got captured, didn’t they?”

“Yep, and now we have to rescue them, somehow.” The question was how.

 

Yoosung ended up at the aquarium again, but none of the fish were looking at him. Rika had cast a spell on him, which would complete the human part of his transformation, more or less. The fish no longer recognized him as a mer. It made him sad, but it was all part of the plan. For now, he had to pretend to be human, while talking idly about mer as if they were real.

Rika said that it was a slow start, but it would get easier and better, as time went on. She had a plan to show everyone how great it was to be a mer, and show the mer how great it was to be human, at the same time. For now, Yoosung had to bring her something, as quickly as he could. There was a transport ring inside the aquarium, through which he could reach her without trouble, or wasting time swimming.

A truck was waiting outside for him and a few other trusted mer. It was carrying one of the things that Rika said she needed for her plan to succeed. When the truck opened, it revealed a single crate. The crate was brought out, and then the mer team got it onto a trolley and wheeled it inside to the transport ring. Yoosung hoped that Saeyoung wouldn’t do anything rash. He wanted to see Rika’s perfect world.

“Let’s get this downstairs,” one of the mer said, activating the transport ring. Yoosung and one other were tasked with actually going with it, to make sure the item got all the way to Rika safely.

Once they were through, the water hit them hard, forcing an abrupt change. Yoosung held his breath as quickly as he could. He wasn’t used to using the ring, yet. His body shifted to its true form, and they lifted the crate easily.

The other mer knew where they were going, so Yoosung took the front of the box, facing them as the pair swam through the hallways. It was like a maze inside, hard to navigate unless one was used to how the building worked. They got to the drop-off room, where Rika was waiting to take the crate. Yoosung turned to face her, happy that he had accomplished this task.

“Thank you for bringing this, both of you,” Rika said, smiling. Yoosung smiled back. He failed to notice the questioning look on the other mer’s face as they swam off, back to the aquarium. It was odd for Rika to be in that room at all, much less thank the mers who brought whatever it was she had ordered this time.

“It was nothing,” Yoosung said. “Do you need help moving it?”

“I’ve got it from here. You go on to your room, and rest. I’ll be sure to send Saeran your way when he returns.”

“Saeran’s awake?”

“Yes, he is. He woke up and came down to me soon after you left. He said that he wanted to help us with the cause, and was especially excited to hear that you had joined, as well.” Yoosung glowed, his skin lighting up. He knew that Saeran would want to help them.

 

Saeran did not want to help them at all. As soon as he returned to Rika’s precious base, he decided that he was going to have a look around, see if he could find her computer. It had to be somewhere, probably somewhere usually blocked off. It occurred to him, at that moment, that it would be in her private quarters.

He swam around, pretending like he was looking for Rika to report that his mission had been a success. Guards would point him down hallways, also somewhat unsure as to where she would be. They constantly said to wait in the throne room. Saeran would nod, go the way they pointed until they were out of sight, and then swim whichever way he thought might take him to her rooms.

At the top of the building thing that was made out of the weird substance, Saeran found an ornate door with two guards outside of it. It had to be something really special, for that sort of reinforcement. He swam away, then out a window that he felt was more for the aesthetic than anything.

What would an underwater place need with windows, anyway?

As it turned out, Rika also recognized this, because try as he might, Saeran found that the room with the guards outside had no windows leading in. He was pretty good with calculating spacial areas, and none of the rooms he saw through other windows matched up with where that room was.

With his investigation stunted, Saeran decided that it was time to actually find Rika. He made his way to the throne room, finding her sitting there, as she had been when he had come in the first time.

“I see you were successful. Did you try and betray me?” she asked. Saeran narrowed his eyes for a split second.

“I wasn’t able to,” he said. It was true.

Rika smiled. She seemed sad. He could tell she wasn’t.

“Yoosung is in his room. You can go see him, if you wish. Glam will show the way.” An older mermaid swam in, her coral scales shining almost unnaturally. Saeran wondered if there was such thing as scale polish. It wouldn’t surprise him. Even if they were only technically half human, mers could still be vain.

“Come on, let’s go,” Glam said. They swam along silently, Saeran trying to figure out why her coral tail looked so familiar. Then it hit him.

“Sarah was your sister, wasn’t she?”

“And you’re one of the people who got her killed. Take my advice: no matter what happens, do not disobey Rika.” Saeran could tell that she was close to crying. He stopped talking until they got to Yoosung’s room.

“Thank you for leading me here. And… I’m sorry about your sister. We didn’t know she would die.”

“Thank you for your concern, but it’s in the past. We must look to the future, and our perfect world.” Saeran nodded. It was all he could really do. Then he knocked on the door that was so like a door from back home, and waited for Yoosung to answer.

“Saeran! You’re here!” Yoosung said. His violet eyes sparkled brightly, fins opening widely.

“Yeah, I am.” Saeran smiled, but it was hard. In merely a day, something had changed inside Yoosung, and Saeran was worried that it would be irreparable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am somewhere between not having expected this to go on as long as it has, and wanting it to go on longer, but at most, this story has three chapters left. it might have more, but it is reaching a climax. don't worry, things will end well.
> 
> maybe not all things.
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D


	15. Chapter 15

“Saeran, isn’t it great? We found my cousin, and we get to help her with her plan to bring our worlds together.” Yoosung was smiling widely.

“Yeah, it is pretty great. But...”

“But?”

“I don’t know. I get the feeling that something is off with her ideal.”

“You don’t think it’s good for our worlds to be connected?” A hard light came into Yoosung’s eye, even as they portrayed concern.

“It’s not that. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something… off about all this.” Saeran didn’t want to fight with Yoosung, not on something like this. “Well, anyway, I’m glad you’re safe.”

“I’m glad you’re safe, too.” They hugged each other, then Yoosung settled onto a clam couch. Saeran snuggled up next to him, looping an arm over his shoulders.

“So, what did you do? Rika said you went on a mission?”

“Yeah, she had something in a crate that she wanted delivered down here, so we used a transport circle to bring it from the aquarium, where it was dropped off in a truck, all the way here in no time at all! It was amazing.”

“That is pretty cool. Where does the circle lead to here?” Saeran asked. He felt like he was almost interrogating Yoosung, but he needed to know as much as possible, so that he could try and drop the information off with Saeyoung. Somehow.

“There’s a storage room down near the ocean floor. We can bring in supplies from the surface through there. It’s phenomenal!”

“Wow. Rika transported me herself both ways. She wanted me to tell Saeyoung to stop looking into things. I guess she doesn’t want him ruining her plans?”

“I guess so. She told me that not everyone would understand her point of view, or her methods. She wants everyone to understand, and she told me that she has plans for that. I don’t know what they are, though. Apparently, she’s gathering a lot of ingredients for a really big spell.”

“A really big spell?”

“Yeah. You’re… you’re not going to try and stop her, will you?”

“That depends on what she tries to do. I don’t want her to hurt people. Sarah’s already dead because of a failsafe against betrayal. What if she tries to hurt Saeyoung? Or Zen?”

“She won’t do that. Rika’s a good person.”

“Yoosung---”

“She’s not going to hurt anyone!” Yoosung bolted off the couch, staring Saeran dead in the eye.

“I know you want to believe that, Yoosung, but you need to face the facts!”

“No!”

“Rika’s not as good as you think she is.”

“No, that’s not true. Rika is a good person!”

“Maybe she was, once, but it looks like she isn’t now.” Saeran laid a hand on Yoosung’s shoulder, only for it to be shaken off. Yoosung refused to meet his gaze, glaring at the floor instead. He was shaking.

“Yoosung?” Saeran tried to duck low enough to see Yoosung’s face.

“Why…?” Yoosung looked up at him. Tears left his eyes, getting lost in the saltwater around them. “Why can’t you see what she’s trying to do? You have two good eyes, why can’t you see!?” Saeran reeled back, shocked at the conviction in Yoosung’s voice. He breathed in and out, trying to keep himself from panicking.

“I think I should go. I’ll help her, but I don’t think her methods are good.” Saeran swam out. He had been hoping for a more joyful reunion, but at least Yoosung was safe and alive.

He returned to his room, with some difficulty, getting lost a dozen times on the way. Somehow, he had made it to the ground floor, and found a storage room with a large portion of the center clear. It had to be the magic transport circle that Yoosung had mentioned. Saeran left the room. He didn’t know how to activate it, and besides, showing up in the aquarium unannounced would raise too many questions that he didn’t have answers to.

If he kept playing along with Rika, then he could find a way to get information to Saeyoung. It would hurt, but he had to do something. He had to tell him about the magic circle. His phone wouldn’t work, since he didn’t have it on him.

 

Saeran was on land again. He thought it was kind of hilarious that Rika was so trusting in him, considering he had almost gotten himself killed the last time. Even better, she was sending him back to Saeyoung. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten the message the first time, but the entire operation had been moved to Jumin’s penthouse.

Inside the lobby, it was a simple matter of the guards already knowing who he was. Saeyoung had called down, too. That meant that he was watching the security cameras. Saeran waved at one, smiling tightly. Everything was about subtle communication, at this point. Anything obvious would kill him, after all. He couldn’t risk that, not when he still felt like there was a chance to get Yoosung out of this situation.

At the top of the elevator shaft, Saeran straightened his shirt. The doors opened, and he stepped into the now familiar penthouse. Vanderwood was standing in front of him, waiting.

“I heard you were coming by today.”

“Yeah. I’m supposed to tell Saeyoung to stop with his investigations. Like I did last time,” Saeran said, smirking. He shrugged. Vanderwood raised an eyebrow and let a small smile out.

“Well, if that’s so, then maybe you should go see him. Where did you come from, huh?”

“Way down deep. Days away by swimming. Rika transported me, since I don’t have any transport up here to leave at the aquarium. Saeyoung’s the one with the car.”

“Some sort of transport technology, then, inside the aquarium. Probably in some place that isn’t guarded with cameras, and therefore can’t be spied on from the outside. That would explain why these mer have been so lax in upping their security. The important stuff doesn’t happen anywhere near here, and we have no way of seeing them come or go.”

“Rika uses magic, by the way. I’m going to go see Saeyoung now.”

“Magic. Of course.” Vanderwood rolled their eyes, leaving Saeran to make his way to the guest room where Saeyoung had holed up. He opened the door carefully, his other job of dropping off information complete. Vanderwood was useful at the best of times, and admittedly kickass at all the other times.

“Saeyoung,” he said. Saeyoung whipped around to face him, bags under his eyes darker than usual, eyes manic. Saeran started.

“Saeran! You’re alive!” A mass of red hair and black hoodie slammed into Saeran, and a surprisingly strong pair of arms latched on tightly.

“I’m alive. Rika sent me over again.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how often she’s going to do this.”

“I’ve found a way to get you both out. If I can get inside the organization itself, then I can find its computer and hack it, and bring them down.”

“Vanderwood has the information for getting in, and I’m learning the inside. I’ll be able to… show you around.”

“Sounds perfect. I guess you can’t stay long?” Saeyoung asked. He looked like he was about to cry.

“I can stay for a little while. I don’t have anywhere to be.” That got Saeyoung to smile. They headed to the kitchen to get some drinks and snacks, finding Vanderwood and V talking.

“I don’t know how we’re supposed to deal with this. I mean, magic and mermaids? This is out of my jurisdiction,” Vanderwood said.

“We just have to do the best we can. I might be able to reason with her,” V said.

“I doubt that that’ll work.”

“I should try, right?”

“You can if you want to.”

“V, you can try to reason with her, if you want, but I’ve been near her, and she is not someone you want to be that close to,” Saeran said. He saw the hurt and indignation on V’s face and sighed. “I know, I know. She’s a good person, and how dare I say that about her? Yoosung said that to me yesterday.”

“He did? So he’s okay?”

“More or less. But… should we remove him? He seems perfectly happy to be helping Rika. If you just keep her from succeeding, then it’s not like anyone’s going to get hurt on a major scale,” Saeran said.

“But you’ll have to stay with her, too. What then? I don’t want to lose you, Saeran,” said Saeyoung.

“I don’t want to lose you, either, but we have to think about everyone involved. Yoosung is happy there. V should go and talk to Rika. You and Vanderwood should plan for a way to stop Rika --- ack!” His head was hurting again.

“You should go before you get in trouble,” Saeyoung said.

“Yeah. I’ll see you again.” Saeran left, the other three bidding him goodbye. He was determined to see them again, even if that meant technically failing this one mission over and over again. It occurred to him that if Yoosung stayed beneath the surface, then he wouldn’t get to have his starfish plush anymore. Saeran wondered what he should do about that, if anything.

Yoosung loved that plush.

Rika had told Saeran that if he failed his mission, then he would have to find another way back. She was expecting him to return, with his life on the line otherwise. Yet, somehow, Saeran had a feeling that he wouldn’t be dying.

He made his way to the aquarium, walking the whole way. It surprised him that he hadn’t seen Zen or Jaehee, but he figured that they had found somewhere else to stay for the time being. Maybe they had moved into Saeyoung’s apartment.

That question was solved a moment later, as a motorcycle went zooming past. Zen waved, and Jaehee turned to look at him. Saeran waved back. So that was where they were. He kept going on to the aquarium, making it after about a half hour of walking.

“What the…?” There was absolute mayhem happening, apparently. People were running out screaming, and it looked like the place was on fire. Saeran walked inside, wondering what was going on.

As it turned out, the place was on fire. None of the tanks were busted, but various objects were burning. Several members of the staff were running around, putting them out.

“Sir! Members of the public are not to be here!”

“Relax, I’m going back to headquarters. I need to use the transport circle.”

“Oh. Uh. Go ahead. Hey, you came with Yoosung, right?”

“Right.” Saeran walked through the aquarium, finding an EMPLOYEES ONLY sign on a door. He went through, meandering down the corridors until he found a fish storage room. It was weird, seeing all of the tanks lined up one after another. One of them included an octopus.

Hadn’t Zen mentioned an octopus?

“Hey, octofriend,” Saeran said, tapping the glass. The octopus looked him up and down.

“Aren’t you a little human to be calling me friend?”

“Yeah, but I’m mer enough to understand your sass.”

“Well hot diggity damn. I’m impressed. What do you want?”

“I want to know if you’re the same octopus that Zen gave his ponytail to,” Saeran said. The octopus fished it out of its hiding spot, showing him the silvery braid.

“You need something?”

“Yeah. I need information on this place, if you can give it to me. Like what the aquarium is shipping to the ocean.”

“It’s parts for some sort of device. I’ve heard some of the mer talking about it. It’s supposed to amplify spells.”

“That’s… not good. If Rika’s building a device to amplify spells, then she can cast a single spell over several people at once. What if she finds a way to cast it on random people?”

“Then she’d be messing with their freedom, right? Be able to control them and where they get to go,” said the octopus.

“Yeah,” said Saeran.

“It’d be like if she kept fish in tanks, or something.”

“…okay. I, uh. I’ll see what I can do for you, and the other fish.”

“The other fish are content. I want to go home.” Saeran nodded, adding the octopus to his list of people to help in this endeavor. Yoosung, V, himself, the octopus. Then he paused. He was on his way to ocean at that very moment.

He grabbed the octopus from its tank. The octopus grabbed the braid, and they were on their way. Saeran managed to find the other side of the transport circle without much trouble, having to stuff the octopus in his jacket at one point.

“Really? Your jacket?” asked the octopus angrily as it popped its head out.

“You want to go home, or not? I don’t know where you used to live, and you’re going to end up super deep in the ocean, but it’s the only thing I can think of.”

“Got it.” Saeran stepped onto the magic circle, and it activated automatically. On the other side, Saeran started suffocating. He probably should have realized that a room full of water would require one to hold their breath on the other side. His body shifted, and the octopus swam away.

“Now you look like a real mer,” it said.

“Thanks.” Saeran swam to the throne room, which he was able to find more easily, now. He was getting used to how the building was on the inside. If he went up to the top floor from here, then it would be straight down the hall to the windowless guarded room.

In the throne room, Rika was petting Yoosung, who was looking very content where he was. Saeran didn’t want to disturb him. He really did seem happy here.

“Have you completed your mission?”

“I have. I don’t know if he’s going to listen, but I’ve done what I can.”

“I understand. Thank you, Saeran,” Rika said, smiling. Her eyes reflected something that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “Why don’t you come here and stay awhile with us?”

Yoosung looked at Saeran hopefully, his head perking up for a moment. Saeran figured that he could spare a moment. It was either being near Yoosung, or wandering the building some more to learn the inside. He swam over and settled down on Rika’s lap, facing Yoosung.

“Isn’t this lovely? Imagine if everyone in the world could be this peaceful,” Rika said. Yoosung watched Saeran with fear. Saeran understood. He said nothing against Rika.

“It’d be nice, yeah,” he said, trying to keep his tone noncommittal.

“See, Yoosung? There’s nothing to worry about. One day, everyone will see how good it is to love each other.” Yoosung smiled. He closed his eyes, allowing Rika’s webbed fingers to card through his hair. Her other hand came to rest on Saeran’s head, petting him like Yoosung. It was a pleasant feeling. He tried really hard not to enjoy it.

 

“You’re really doing this, huh?” Vanderwood said. V nodded. He gripped his walking stick hard, knowing that Jumin probably wouldn’t help him, but also knowing that he was the only way. With how far the deep cities were, the only way to get to Rika in a timely manner was through a teleportation spell.

“I have to do something. If I had gone with Rika before, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” Jumin walked through the door at that moment, unhooking his cuffs.

“Jumin, I need a spell,” V said.

“This is a lot of magic lately, isn’t it?” Jumin asked.

“Yes, it is. I’m sorry to be inconveniencing to you.”

“You’re not an inconvenience, Jihyun. What spell is it?”

“A transport spell, so I can talk to Rika. I need to help her.” He could feel Jumin sighing. V set his walking stick on the ground, leaning on it a bit.

“Jihyun---”

“I know what you’re going to say, and I know that I seem obsessed, but I really feel like I can do something for her. Besides, with both Saeran and Yoosung with her, I can’t just sit around and hope for the best.”

“Jihyun, are you insane? Let Vanderwood go. They’re trained for this sort of thing.”

“If I’m going, then we should wait for Saeyoung to finish his kill code. Then we can all go and finish this in a single blow,” said Vanderwood. V and Jumin looked at them, and Jumin nodded.

“That sounds like a good plan,” he said.

“No, it’s too dangerous. I should go alone,” said V. Vanderwood rolled their eyes, looking at him with a withering glare. It didn’t work, of course. People need to see in order to be affected by glares.

“V, if you go, you’re going to bump into every single thing from here to Timbuktu without fail. However, it might be best if you go in first. That’ll give you a chance to talk to Rika without being interrupted. Meanwhile, I can get Saeyoung to where he needs to be to do his job.”

“Why are you so interested?” Jumin asked.

“Because I’ve looked at the list of human-to-mer people, and there are a number of missing people on it. That’s something that I need to look into.”

“Okay. You, Jihyun, and Saeyoung. How soon before he’s done?”

“It shouldn’t be too long. I’ll go check.” Vanderwood left the other two alone, going to try and find Saeyoung amid the empty chip bags and soda bottles. Jumin looked at V.

“What is it?” V asked.

“You try to shoulder everything on your own. Why can’t you see that we’re all willing to help you?”

“I can see that just fine. You’ve made it clear. Even so---”

“Then accept our help, dammit!” Jumin shook V.

“I can’t. What if you got hurt?”

“What if you do!? Jihyun, we care about you. You think that I like watching you tear yourself to pieces? I don’t!” Jumin felt tears pricking at his eyes, and then one spilled over.

“… Fine. I’ll let them come,” V said.

“Thank you.”

 

Vanderwood knocked on Saeyoung’s door, then opened it. They never really cared about Saeyoung’s need for privacy, anyway. He was either doing something stupid that could be interrupted, or was so absorbed in his work that no one could break him out of it, anyway.

“Hey, is your kill code ready?” they asked.

“Yep! Just finished!” Saeyoung held up a flashdrive, and shoved it into a plastic bag. “Ready to go out and dive into the deep ocean!” He looked excited as he grabbed the scuba gear he had dragged with him into the living room.

“What if you do!?” the two of them heard from the living room. Vanderwood raised an eyebrow, then a device on their belt went off.

“Looks like Zen and Jaehee are on their way up.” They went into the living room, where V and Jumin were standing, looking like they had come to some sort of agreement.

“Alright, the three of us are going to take down Rika’s organization!” Saeyoung shouted. The elevator doors opened, revealing Jaehee.

“Zen and I won’t be of much help if you’re planning a forward assault. We’ll be cheering you on from here,” Jaehee said.

“You know, we don’t have to leave today. We could start this tomorrow, and do some more planning,” Saeyoung said.

“You’re not having one last fuck before we leave. Come on, we’re doing this now. V,” Vanderwood said, grabbing them both by the hand and dragging them away.

“Good luck on your mission,” Jumin said. He wished that he could have sent bodyguards with them, but he couldn’t. Stealth was the way to go here, and a large number of guards would only make things worse.

“Yes, good luck, indeed. Zen is in the lobby right now. I’m sure he’ll want to say good-bye,” Jaehee said.

“It might be best if you go with them. You’re a skilled fighter, after all,” said Jumin. Jaehee thought for a moment, then nodded, and they headed down.

“Zen! I’m going on a super dangerous mission that I might not come back from,” Saeyoung said as the doors opened.

“You better come back. I won’t forgive you if you don’t. Are you going to the aquarium first? And Jaehee, you’re going with them?”

“Yes, I am. Jumin thinks my skills in fighting would be helpful.”

“Then, can’t I do something, too?” Zen asked. He looked between them.

“He is a mer,” Saeyoung said, looking to Vanderwood. Vanderwood thought for a moment.

“Guard Saeyoung with your life.”

“Right!” Thus, the five of them went off. They climbed into Vanderwood’s van, strapping themselves in and going to the aquarium. On the way, they saw the end of a huge plume of smoke rising from the aquarium.

“What happened there?”

“Oh… um. We kind of… had some fun earlier,” Zen said sheepishly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanderwood is on this everyone. Everything will be okay.
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for blood and corpses.

Vanderwood pulled into the parking lot, sighing at the sight of the aquarium on fire.

“If that doesn’t somehow announce our presence, I don’t know what will,” they said. Saeyoung stared at the building on fire, tapping a finger against his chin for a moment. He shifted his shoulders, moving the weight of his scuba gear around a bit.

“It does make it easier to go inside. No one will be there, and the fire department hasn’t arrived yet, either. Let’s go, before things get worse.” The five of them entered the building, Jaehee leading V in carefully, so that he didn’t run into anything hiding in the smoke.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Vanderwood asked Saeyoung.

“I’m sure. This is pretty standard stuff, after all. If I can’t do it now, how did I do it before?” He chuckled, and delved deeper into the aquarium, already familiar with the inside from all of the reconnaissance he had done.

Crawling across the ground to dodge the smoke, Saeyoung tried to remember where he had found the distinct lack of security cameras. They made their way down one hall after another, looking around for the way out. Zen noticed, as they passed through the room with all the fish, that the octopus was missing.

“Weird,” he muttered, and kept going. None of them could stop. The fire had spread significantly. Zen hoped that he hadn’t accidentally ruined this mission with his craziness. It had been a spur of the moment decision to set the aquarium on fire, but he had had a feeling that it wasn’t in his control to do so. He couldn’t quite remember why --- and then it came to him.

When he had first started dating Saeyoung, he had had a dream that he would commit arson. It hadn’t made sense at the time, and seemed really vague and foggy. Now he knew why: it was a long time between the dream and this moment.

Saeyoung found a door that had always registered as locked for him, except on very rare occasions, like when he had seen Yoosung helping to deliver a package beyond this door. It had to be the way to the transport circle that Saeran had mentioned to Vanderwood.

He hoped his brother was okay.

The door wasn’t locked anymore, probably because of a mass exodus of the staff around here. Saeyoung opened it, and crawled inside. He skittered down the ensuing hallway as quickly as he could, not wanting to spend more time in this place than necessary, and wished for a moment that diving gear wasn’t so heavy.

“Vanderwood, I need you to guard the entrance to this place. Okay? No one leaves the room with the transport circle… here it is,” Saeyoung said as he found the transportation room.

“Understood.” This part of the aquarium was smokeless, but another threat stood before them. It was a woman, not terribly old, but her youth had gone. She looked unhappy.

“Who are you?” Saeyoung asked, getting off the floor. He didn’t know if she was a threat or not.

“My name is Glam Choi. You were one of the mer who killed my sister, and as odd as it may seem, I’d like to thank you for that. I wasn’t able to help her like I should have, and I couldn’t keep her out of harm’s way. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, so if you’re here to stop Rika, then I’ll get you to her.” Glam looked like she was in pain. Saeyoung breathed a heavy sigh. He knew that she was probably experiencing the same symptoms as Saeran, and Sarah.

“Thank you. We just need you to open the way for us, so that we can get inside,” Saeyoung said. Glam nodded, as four of them stepped on.

“How do you know that she isn’t leading you into a trap?” Vanderwood asked.

“That’s a good point. This could be an ambush,” Jaehee said, edging slowly off the circle.

“If it were, they wouldn’t let us know that that’s possible. We could prepare ourselves, after all. Anyway, we really don’t have a choice. The city this leads to is way too far away for any other plan,” Saeyoung said.

“Then we should go before things get worse,” said Zen.

“… Alright. Let’s go.” Vanderwood turned toward the door as they stripped down, leaving their clothes behind, then turned back around as Glam activated the transport circle, causing the other four to disappear with her in a flash of light and a pop.

“Saeyoung, I hope you know how to get out of this alive,” Vanderwood muttered. Then they turned to the door, intent on watching for as long as it took.

 

The first thing that Saeyoung noticed on the other side was that everything around him was water. The second thing was that his mask wasn’t on. He quickly corrected the second, then looked around at his friends. They were choking, but he could see that their bodies were readjusting. Soon, bronze, red, and aqua tails had replaced the legs of the other three, and Saeyoung nodded. This was going well, so far. Glam had acclimated, too, a coral tail appearing that looked very similar to her sister’s.

The door to the transport room opened, and Saeran poked his head around.

“Oh, no, intruders,” he drawled. “I sure hope they don’t reach the command center.” Saeyoung grinned. Even now, his brother was still being his old sarcastic self. He waved, and Saeran waved back, fighting off an equal grin and not succeeding well.

Saeran swam off, and they followed him along, up a shaft that was completely empty. Saeyoung supposed, if this place wasn’t filled with water and mer people who could swim, then it would have stairs in it. As it was, the group was able to simply float to the top. Glam went off to some other floor.

The group, now at six members, made it all the way to the guarded door that Saeran was almost sure held the central computer of Rika’s operation. It had to. If it didn’t, then they were all done for. Coming around the corner, Saeran pointed out the two guards. Jaehee nodded, and silently, they went forward to take the guards out.

Jaehee approached one, who went after her with a spear in hand. She knocked it away effortlessly, her black belt in judo shining through in the skill she showed. The guard stared at her for a moment, stunned that she had disarmed him, and Jaehee took the chance to grab hold of him, throwing him into the floor. The water snatched some of the momentum of the blow, but Jaehee was undeterred. She pulled the guard into a quick headlock, choking him and his gills until he went unconscious.

Saeran was a lot less finessed about the guard he took on. After grabbing the spear and wrenching it out of the guard’s hand, he hit him over the head repeatedly until the guard went down.

“Bite me,” he said after, keeping the spear in hand. Saeyoung patted his head as he swam by toward the locked room.

“Does anyone have the key?” Jaehee asked. Saeran pulled it out from where he had wedged it between some scales in his tail. It was the closest thing he had to a pocket.

“Right here,” he said, sliding it into the door.

“I never thought that you would betray me so,” Rika said from the other end of the hall. Everyone turned to look at her.

“Rika,” V breathed. He swam slowly toward her, unable to see her.

“Jihyun. You’ve returned.”

“I have. Rika, what are you planning?”

“I’m planning to help the world. Why? Are you going to stop me?” Rika asked, sounding hurt. Saeran shook out his head, refusing to be swayed by the seemingly genuine sound of Rika’s distress. He knew better. He knew that she wasn’t actually sad at all. Then something struck him. Saeran wasn’t in pain.

Saeyoung watched the proceedings, able to hear and understand everything going on, but unable to speak to them. He opened the door slowly, then slipped through it while Rika was distracted with V. Beyond the door was a bubble area. Saeyoung closed the door behind him, and the room emptied of water. The first door locked itself, and then part of the wall slid away, revealing a sealed room behind it with a computer inside. A few towels were in the wall next to the door.

Rika kept an eye on everyone in the hall. Jaehee, Saeran, Zen, and V… she raised an eyebrow minutely, trying to figure out where Saeyoung had gone. He had been her next target to bring into the sea, after all. He had probably already gone into the computer room, and, judging by the door’s being closed, the room beyond was emptying of water. She frowned.

“I see your brother is trying to end my operation here. It won’t work, of course. I’m not so stupid that I would keep my files on merely one computer,” Rika said.

“I’m sure that wherever else the files are being kept, they’ve been removed,” Jaehee said.

“He wiped the aquarium computer,” added Zen. Rika sighed.

“Zen, you were always such a good actor. I really did enjoy your shows.” Zen tensed from the praise. That wasn’t good. She was losing control. It had been so easy before. Either she’d spent too long away, or someone had poisoned her image in their minds. That was okay. She was perfect to Yoosung, and they would never hurt him.

“Come here, my shooting starfish,” Rika said, tapping her tail. Yoosung swam into view. Saeran nearly choked, and looked more closely at his boyfriend. There was a worried look on his face, bordering on sad. Saeran swallowed thickly. He didn’t want to see that face on Yoosung anymore.

“Why? Why would you…? And Saeran, you, too?” Tears welled up in Yoosung’s eyes, and it became harder for him to breathe. He shook his head in denial, rubbing away the tears.

“Yeah, me too. I can’t just let her manipulate people like she has been. She’s building some sort of machine to amplify her spell over a large area. Hundreds of people on land are going to become mer, and thousands of mer will become human. Do you know what that could do to them? You told me that drifting is something that mer shouldn’t do,” Saeran said.

“They can live in harmony?”

“I know they could, Yoosung, but realistically, it’s not going to work out like that.”

“You don’t know that!”

“You don’t know it’ll end well!” Yoosung started to say something in response, then closed his mouth, choosing instead to charge forward straight toward Saeran. As he got closer, Saeran backed up, hitting the wall. Yoosung’s presence pinned him to it. He found himself unable to move in the light of two shades of violet staring him down as Yoosung moved his face within inches of Saeran’s.

“I know that her methods aren’t the best, Saeran. You win. You got me to doubt her, and now I can’t see her as a good person, anymore. But I don’t know what to do,” Yoosung whispered. He was hurting badly. Saeran could see it in his eyes. Then, Yoosung swam violently back to Rika’s side, whapping Saeran in the face with his tail fin.

Peeling himself off the wall, Saeran tried to think of how to extend this little visit. If Rika was distracted here, then Saeyoung would have time to do something before anyone came along. Even so, it was still bothering him that nothing had happened to him.

“Hey, Rika,” Saeran said, “I thought traitors to your little regime got punished severely?” He crossed his arms. Rika laughed.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt anyone,” she said.

“Like you didn’t hurt Sarah? That was your spell, wasn’t it?” He could see Yoosung slowly drifting behind her, apparently coming up with some sort of plan. Saeran absolutely had to keep her distracted. He could trust Yoosung, he knew he could. He had to trust him.

“It’s a side effect of becoming part of the other world,” Rika said.

“It wasn’t part of Jumin’s version of the spell.”

“You’re really going to unleash that sort of spell on the world?” Zen asked. “A spell that would hurt and kill people if they refused to follow you? That’s sick!” Suddenly, there was a flash of red as Zen streaked across the water.

“No!” V cried, getting in Zen’s way, putting them into a grappling contest. Rika tried to swim off, but she was blocked by Yoosung.

“Yoosung, what are you doing?”

“I’ve been thinking about it, ever since I brought that package in with the other mer. I… I don’t want to live in a world where people can’t choose if they want to join the other world.” Rika struggled to get out of Yoosung’s grip, but he shifted to a headlock.

“Let me go!” she shrieked. Saeran bore down on her, intent on finishing the job permanently. V broke free of Zen, sliding between Saeran and Rika just as he was opening his jaw to tear out her throat.

He tore into V’s, instead.

 

Saeyoung finished downloading the kill code, which he had tested successfully on the aquarium computers. He watched and waited as it wiped the entire system clean of every single file stored on the hard drive, then, once it was done, grabbed the flash drive and reentered the bubble room. He could hear fighting on the other side as the room slowly filled with water, and then the fighting stopped. A scream echoed into the room, loud and clear, as the water level rose. Once it was done, Saeyoung opened the other door to find a bloody mess on the other side.

“What happened?” he asked, though no one could hear him because of the mask. Saeran looked at him, blood dripping into the water from his mouth. His eyes were wide, scared. Saeyoung approached him, trying to reach his brother as quickly as possible.

“Saeran!?” Saeyoung shook him by the shoulders, then looked over to where the blood was. V was floating dead in the water. Rika was crying hysterically. Yoosung was just staring at the corpse. Finally, Zen grabbed the corpse, shaking Jaehee out of her own stupor. They got the group moving, back down the shaft and to the magic circle.

“I can’t believe… I can’t believe I did that...” Saeran murmured. Yoosung took his hand as best he could, unable to entwine their fingers like he could on land.

“Saeran. I’m sorry. If I had believed you sooner, or done more, then...” He looked at Rika, but she had gone into shock, unable to do much more than breathe.

“We… we need to get home, right?”

“Yeah, we do,” Zen said. They all gathered on the magic circle, Jaehee holding onto Rika. Yoosung activated the portal, and they went through, back to the aquarium that was on fire.

 

Vanderwood turned around at the sound of the magic circle being activated. They saw multiple mer appear, with variously colored tails, and ran a hand through their hair. Even after it all being explained by Saeyoung, Vanderwood still hadn’t really believed in the whole “mer” thing.

“Did you complete your mission?”

“Yeah, we completed it,” Saeyoung said, pulling his mask off. He was stunned, Vanderwood could tell. They soon deduced the cause, as their eyes lighted on V. Blood was pouring from his neck, which was clearly missing some of itself.

“What the fuck!?” Vanderwood shook their head out, then focused on the task at hand. “We need to get you all dry and ready for transport. Towels. Here.” Handing out towels to the others, Vanderwood found themself face-to-face with someone unfamiliar.

“Who’s this?” they asked, looking at Rika.

“That’s the boss lady of the ocean organization. I don’t know what to do with her, but we couldn’t leave her there,” Saeyoung said, helping Saeran dry off. Yoosung managed to take care of himself just fine. Jaehee got herself dried off, then took V’s corpse off of Zen so that he could do the same. Only Rika still had her tail.

“Will it be better to leave her like this? Or should we dry her off, as well?” Vanderwood asked. “We do have an extra towel. Oh.” That was a dumb thing to say.

“We should leave her like this, for now. Less chance of her running away,” Saeyoung said.

Once everyone had legs, they hit the ground, crawling back into the hallway, which was clear of smoke. Standing again, Saeyoung looked around, seeing that the entire building was soaked.

“How long were we gone?”

“Long enough that I had to hide when the firemen came barreling into this room to make sure it was safe. They left pretty quickly,” Vanderwood said.

“You didn’t stop them?”

“They didn’t enter the portal. None of them were mer. We need to keep moving.” The group headed down the hallway. Vanderwood took V on their back, making sure everyone stayed together. They left through the front door, the parking lot mostly cleared out. Zen and Jaehee carried Rika between them, guiding her to the car as the others formed a shield to keep her tail out of sight.

Everyone jumped into the van once again, an atmosphere of tension and relief permeating the vehicle. Vanderwood looked out the rearview mirror toward a few police cars that were parked near the entrance. They scrunched up their lip, deciding that it was now or never, and threw the van into reverse.

Slamming on the gas, then the brake, Vanderwood slid the van into drive and turned it toward the entrance like a boss. They sped out of the parking lot as a couple police officers ran to stop them.

“No way am I stopping now,” they muttered, turning onto the road. Vanderwood considered possible options on what to do. With a bleeding corpse in the backseat, it would be hard to get to Jumin, and Saeyoung’s place would be similarly hard to reach. They’d have to settle for the hospital, then. It was fairly obvious, but it was also the only place that made sense.

Of course, there wasn’t really a time limit for this, just a need to get somewhere relatively safe.

“We’re going to the hospital,” Vanderwood said, joining traffic.

 

It only took about fifteen minutes to get there, which was nice. The iron smell of blood was starting to get to everyone. Saeran tried not to vomit, but it was hard. He cracked a window, hoping that that would help a bit. It did, just enough.

“I’m so sorry,” Yoosung said. Saeran turned his head at the sound of the familiar voice, trying to focus enough to be able to see Yoosung properly. Things were getting fuzzy for him.

“I should have listened to you more carefully. You had a good point in...” Saeran didn’t hear the rest of what Yoosung was saying. He blacked out, his head hitting the window.

Yoosung brushed some hair out of Saeran’s face, pulling the redhead toward him, and holding him close. He didn’t know exactly what he had seen in Saeran’s eyes at that last moment, before thing started moving fast, but he felt like Saeran wouldn’t mind this contact.

Inside the hospital, Rika was taken in for testing. Since V had died as a mer, his body couldn’t be moved. They would have to find a place to put it. Saeyoung called Jumin, to tell him what had transpired --- mostly. How could he tell Jumin that his best friend was dead?

“Hey, it’s Saeyoung. We succeeded. Rika’s organization is done for.”

“Rika’s… so it really was her?”

“Yeah. We’re at the hospital right now, and she’s being checked on. Don’t worry, though, we dried her off, so there’s no problem there, but… you should come down here. There’s something I think you need to see.”

“Something I need to see?” Jumin asked.

“Yeah. It’s important.”

“Alright. I’m on my way.”

Jumin arrived shortly thereafter, wondering what could be so important that Saeyoung felt the need to tell him so. He found the group waiting for him outside, next to the van he had lent them.

“What is it?”

“It’s V,” Vanderwood said. Their usually neutral expression was tinged with sorrow. Jumin felt his breath coming more quickly. He grabbed the handle on the van door, yanking it open and to the side, looking in. V was… Jihyun, he was…

Jumin shook his head. He sank to his knees, staring at the body of his friend.

“I… I can’t… Why?” He turned to the others. None of them could meet his gaze. “How?” At that, Saeran spoke.

“It was my fault. I wanted to kill Rika, and he protected her. I’m sorry, Jumin.” Tears spilled over onto Saeran’s cheeks.

“You… you did this…?”

“Yeah, I did.” A hard light came into Jumin’s eyes, and he lunged at Saeran, screaming, grabbed him by the neck and attempted to strangle him. Saeran didn’t fight back, just stood there, even as Jumin’s rage subsided and he let go. He was crying openly.

“I knew this wouldn’t end well,” Jumin said. He tried to hold the tears back, but it was no use.

Zen reached out a hand, touching Jumin’s shoulder, then rested his hand fully on it. Jumin turned to face him, seeing that Zen was crying, too.

“He was our friend, and he’s gone. What do we do now?” Zen asked.

“We… we have to move forward. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but we have to keep moving forward, somehow.” Jumin breathed in and out, trying to calm himself. Jaehee placed a hand on his other shoulder, Yoosung and Saeyoung held him tightly. Saeran averted his gaze, backing away a few paces to give them some room. Vanderwood joined him.

“This is touching,” Vanderwood said. They were about to close the van door, but saw something strange occur with V’s body.

“Hey, Jumin. A person’s body stays however it was when they die, right?”

“Yes, it does.”

“V’s just shifted.”

 

He was brought into the hospital immediately. Jumin stayed near his room the entire time that V was being treated, while the others kept an eye on him. Vanderwood stayed there with him. Zen and Jaehee ran to the vending machine every once in awhile to bring food and drinks back.

Yoosung went to visit Rika. He had something to ask her.

“Rika,” he said, entering her room. She looked at him, her eyes unseeing. “V’s okay. He’s alive.”

“He is? That’s good. Why are you here, Yoosung?”

“I… I have a favor to ask.”

“You held me hostage to die, and you want me to grant you a favor?” Rika glared at Yoosung witheringly. He remained staunchly unwithered.

“Do you know of a way to make someone permanently human?” he asked.

“I do, but I won’t tell you. It’s in Jumin’s book, anyway.”

“Thank you.” Yoosung left again. He was still reeling over the fact that Rika’s plan to help the world, as nice as it seemed, was really so horrid, but he felt like he was dealing with it well.

Or, maybe, he wasn’t dealing with it at all. Regardless, he had some things to think about. If he was going to become human for the rest of his life, he had to find a way to do so. That meant going back to Jumin’s place. That wasn’t going to be possible just yet, not until V was better. None of them were leaving him anytime soon.

“V, get well soon,” Yoosung whispered as he came near V’s room. The others were sitting in the nearby waiting room. He sat down next to Saeran, and laid his head on his shoulder.

“I love you,” Yoosung said.

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry not sorry. (i really was going to kill him, but that would mess with my ending.)
> 
> comment if you wish. im sure you do :3:3:3


	17. Chapter 17

As V recovered, Jumin was convinced to go back to his home. Yoosung went with him. After all, he still had some stuff there, and there was something he wanted to check out.

Musing through various books in Jumin’s penthouse, Yoosung tried to find the spellbook that he used to make them into mer and human. No matter where he looked, he wasn’t able to find it.

“It shouldn’t be this hard...” he muttered, scanning the shelves in Jumin’s home office. The guy needed to take some proper time off of work.

“Looking for something?” Jumin asked, standing at the doorway. His arms were crossed, but his face was neutral.

“Oh! Um… yes?” Yoosung wasn’t sure how to approach this problem, to be honest. If he asked Jumin outright, then the older man might not be willing to help. If he asked for the spellbook, Jumin would get suspicious of his intentions. He couldn’t risk either of those happening.

“What is it? It seems to be fairly urgent.” Yoosung took a deep breath. It was easier to say it out loud, right? That would hopefully help more than trying to be sneaky.

“I need a spell to make me human permanently.”

“Permanently?” There was shock on Jumin’s face, and it wasn’t going away. Yoosung stood his ground. This was important. He needed to do this.

“Yes, permanently. I want… I want to live here, with Saeran, and all of you. I’ve been told, since I was young, that drifting is a bad thing, and maybe it is, but I know that it isn’t for me. I want to be human, Jumin. Can you help me?”

“I can. Are you sure about this?”

“Yes.” He had never been more sure of anything in his life. Yoosung loved Saeran, and didn’t want to be apart from him.

“I see. Alright. I’ll start gathering the ingredients. You should tell Saeran that you’re planning this. I’ll notify you if something becomes a problem for this spell,” Jumin said, pulling the spellbook from behind his back. Yoosung hadn’t even thought to register that his hand was hidden, or that Jumin might have preempted him at all. His eyes got wide.

“I had a feeling that you would want this.” Jumin smiled, then dismissed Yoosung from his office, sitting down at the desk to start looking for the spell. Yoosung thanked him and left.

In all honesty, Jumin was worried that Yoosung was asking after this spell. Even if what he said was true, there was no telling what thoughts Rika may have poisoned him with. For all Jumin knew, he may have gotten more devious, and consequently lied his way into completing Rika’s dream for her. However, Jumin wanted to believe in Yoosung, so he searched for the spell.

Yoosung went to his room, hugging his starfish plush. He wasn’t sure how to contact Saeran. They had never thought that it would be necessary, since Yoosung had a lot of studying to do, and they met once a week, anyway.

He thought for some time before thinking that maybe Jumin had a landline somewhere. It was a special phone that would never stop working, unless the power went out, and since the building had recently been moving onto its own power grid, that wasn’t likely to happen. Yoosung set off in search of it, checking the most likely places first.

It was sitting on a table in the living room. Yoosung stared at it, remembering how Saeran’s phone had worked. However, he still wasn’t sure how to call Saeran specifically. He scrunched up his mouth, still holding the plushy, then went to ask Jumin.

“Hey, Jumin? Do you have Saeran’s number?”

“I don’t, but I have Saeyoung’s. Here, use my phone,” Jumin said, getting up. He pulled his phone out, fiddling with it a bit, and handed it to Yoosung. It was set to dial Saeyoung already. Yoosung smiled.

“Thank you, Jumin,” he said, walking out of the office. He didn’t go too far, just enough that he wouldn’t disturb Jumin as he talked. The phone made the dialing sound in his ear, then he heard the line activate. He sat down on one of the living room couches.

“Hello?”

“Hello, this is Yoosung. Jumin lent me his phone, but neither of us knows Saeran’s number,” Yoosung said, chuckling nervous. “I’m trying to get in contact with him.”

“I’ll get him for you,” Saeyoung said. Yoosung heard him call for Saeran and explain the situation, much to Saeran’s annoyance. Soon, however, the former mer could hear his boyfriend’s voice.

“Yoosung, what is it?”

“I, um. I want to stay with you, for as long as I live, so I asked Jumin for a spell to make me fully human. I thought you should know, since...” This was more nerve wracking than Yoosung thought it would be.

“A spell to make you completely human?”

“Yeah.” There was silence on the other end. Weeks ago, Yoosung might have gotten worried that Saeran was annoyed, or something, but now he knew that Saeran was just thinking.

“I see. What does it need? I might be able to find something.”

“We don’t know yet. Jumin is still looking --- oh, I think he found it.”

“I did. Is that Saeran?” Jumin asked.

“Yeah, it is,” Yoosung replied. Jumin motioned for the phone, and Jumin took it. He pressed a button, then set the phone down between them.

“I just put you on speaker. You both need to hear this,” Jumin said, sitting on the couch. The spellbook was open in his lap. Yoosung tried to see what was on the page, but the text was a weird shape, and he couldn’t make it out.

“What is it? Is it bad?” Saeran asked.

“It’s not bad, per se. However, in order to transform someone permanently from one to the other, another has to take their place. Someone is going to have to become permanently mer in order for Yoosung to be permanently human, and they have to have had been human in the first place,” Jumin said. Yoosung held the plush more tightly. Saeran was silent, as well.

“Then I’ll do it,” he said finally. “I started as human, I’ll turn into a mer for him.”

“But then we can’t be together! And we can’t even transform to join each other,” Yoosung said.

“That’s true. What do we do? Maybe Saeyoung can ---”

“He’s not a mer in any sense,” said Jumin. “I would have to cast the mer spell, first, and then make it permanent.”

“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that spell. It’s too painful,” said Yoosung. “But who else can do it? V?”

“I won’t allow it. V is not going to become a full mer.”

“Damn. We’re running out of options, huh?” Yoosung could almost see Saeran trying to find a way through this.

“Yeah, we are. Do we know anyone else?”

“What about the mer who were at the aquarium? No, that won’t work. They started as mer, didn’t they?” Saeran asked.

“Yes, they did. And even if we found one or two who started as humans, I doubt that they would want to become fully mer, all things considered,” Jumin said. Then his eyes lit up. “I think I know someone who would be willing to help. I’ll call her.”

“Her?” Yoosung asked, cocking his head. Her… then it hit him. “Jaehee!”

“Right! She used to work for Jumin because she was human,” Saeran exclaimed. Yoosung let out a whoop, jumping off the couch. He ran around the penthouse living room, reveling in the feeling of his legs pumping back and forth, back and forth. He was going to be able to feel this forever! Or at least, until he died.

“We can do this!” he shouted. Jumin smiled, then took the phone, turning it off speaker, and told Saeran he would be hanging up to call her. Presumably, she and Zen had phones on them.

Yoosung bounced around giddily, then a thought occurred to him. He didn’t actually know what else the spell might require.

“Hey, Jumin. Now that we have someone else to help us with this spell, what do we need for the spell itself?” he asked.

“I can get the rest of it. However, we’ll have to do this on the beach. It requires us to meet somewhere accessible to both parties, assuming Jaehee is alright with being a mer forever.”

“Thank you, Jumin. What did she say?”

“She said she would think about it. Apparently, she has some commitments on the surface that would be difficult to give up.”

“I see.” Yoosung thought for a moment about what those commitments could be, but he really didn’t know enough about Jaehee or her life to be able to say. He blew air out of his mouth in a huff, his breath curling hair for just a moment.

He was going to miss his old self, but this was the way he wanted to go.

“Do you know where she is? I want to talk to her, and see her point of view,” Yoosung said. He knew better, now. Just because he thought something was right, that didn’t make it so. Rika thought she was right, but her plan was too painful and wasn’t going to let people have a choice in the matter at hand.

“Yes, I do. She’s at a coffee shop right now, talking to a friend of hers. Someone she called Minki. I’ll have Driver Kim take you.”

“Thanks, Jumin. For everything. You didn’t have to help me, but you did, without even knowing who I was. That’s really awesome.” Yoosung stood to leave, and Jumin went with him to the elevator. They stood there for awhile as it came up, then Yoosung walked in, and looked back at Jumin.

“I’m glad you two are happy together,” Jumin said, smiling.

“I’m glad V is going to be alright. You might not see it, but he’s really happy around you.” The doors closed on Jumin’s surprised expression, and, as Yoosung went down, a smile broke out on his face that he wasn’t able to hide. There was no one to hide it from, anyway. Elizabeth meowed at Jumin’s feet. He looked at her, and picked her up.

“V is happy here, with us,” Jumin said softly, stroking her fur.

 

The coffee shop was some distance away, far enough that Yoosung figured Jaehee had chosen it specifically to not be near her old place of work. Apparently, her time there had led her to want to avoid the building in general. He thought that that was sad.

“Here we are, Mr. Kim,” Driver Kim said. Yoosung thanked him, and got out of the car. He walked into the coffee shop, looking around for Jaehee. He soon spotted her sitting in a booth. She looked like she was enjoying herself, talking with someone he couldn’t see from where he was.

“Jaehee, hey. I’m sorry to bother you. Is it alright if we talk?”

“Sure thing. First, I’d like you to meet Minki, my girlfriend,” Jaehee said, gesturing to the seat across from her. There was a young woman with long, straight, brown hair and golden eyes almost hidden behind her bangs. She smiled happily.

“It’s nice to meet you, Yoosung. Jaehee says that you need her to do something nearly impossible.” Yoosung scratched the back of his head, laughing nervously.

“Yeah, I kinda do… um...”

“She knows about us, so don’t worry about that,” Jaehee said. Minki nodded, then moved her hands over her ears and flapped them like fins, making a fish face.

“Okay,” Yoosung said. “Do you mind if I sit down?”

“Not at all! Join us for a bit,” Minki said. Yoosung nodded and sat, unsure of what to even say.

“So you need Jaehee to switch with you so that you can stay here with your boyfriend?”

“That’s right. But, if she doesn’t want to, I don’t want to force her,” Yoosung said. Minki nodded, thinking hard.

“What are the requirements for switching?” she asked. The other two stared at her. Yoosung was confused; Jaehee figured out her intentions in a second.

“You don’t have to go with me, assuming I do this at all. I know that I’m pretty much the only option left, but still. Minki, don’t feel pressured into helping,” Jaehee said.

“I don’t feel pressured at all. If I can be like you are now, then we can still hang out. I’ll visit the beach, and we can still be together. Come on, please?” Jaehee sighed, closing her eyes for awhile. When she opened them again, she gave her girlfriend a small smile.

“Alright. But we should discuss this with Jumin, first.”

“Right, since one of the requirements is that you have to,” Yoosung looked around, then fish faced like Minki had, “first.”

“Got it. We’ll talk to him tomorrow.” With that agreed on, Yoosung left them to their date, and headed back to Jumin’s.

 

“What do you mean, he’s drifting onto shore!? Just having that spell cast on him was bad enough, and now he’s going to drift away forever? I’m not allowing that!” Zen shouted. Saeran shoved a pillow in his face, hoping to drown the sound of the yelling out.

“I know you don’t, but Yoosung wants to do this of his own volition. We can’t tell him what to do or what not to do,” Saeyoung replied. Saeran decided to go out into the living room where the other two were talking, and get this all straightened out.

“Yoosung wants to be with me. That’s why he’s doing this. If you had the chance, Zen, wouldn’t you do the same?”

“I… probably, yeah. Fine, I get why he’s doing this. But still, he’s drifting!”

“And I’m sure something utterly horrible will happen to him. Like, he has to marry Saeran, or something,” Saeyoung said, snickering. Saeran batted him over the head.

“Yeah, and if it were Zen, he’d have to deal with you for the rest of his life.”

“Right?” Saeyoung laughed. Zen rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, we still have to find someone to switch with him. It can’t be Zen. Jumin said he was asking Jaehee for her help.”

“She won’t. She has a lady friend up here. If Jaehee goes away, then they’ll have to break up. Guess there’s nothing to it, I’m just going to have to be a cute mermaid and date my hot merman boyfriend,” Saeyoung said, sighing dramatically and pressing his hands to his heart. Saeran rolled his eyes.

“Not you, moron. You have to have the spell cast on you in the first place, remember? You don’t.”

“Right… Welp! Guess that means we’ll just have to meet with Jumin tomorrow!” Saeyoung called Jumin up, and told him that they’d be arriving in order to meet about this. Jumin suggested including V in the chat, so they all agreed to meet at the hospital, in his room.

“Hopefully, he’ll have recovered enough to withstand so many visitors,” Zen muttered while Saeyoung was on the phone.

“Good point. Is he okay to have visitors?” Saeyoung asked Jumin. He listened for a moment, then turned back to the other two. “We’ll all meet at Jumin’s tomorrow at ten, and talk this over until we have a few definite options. Then we’ll go to V and present them so he doesn’t have to deal with so much.”

“Sounds good,” Saeran said. “The less he has to deal with, the better. I think I should stay back, when we go to visit him.”

“Yeah, that might be good,” Zen replied.

 

Jumin sat and looked at the people gathered before him. They were all here for one thing, and one thing only: Yoosung’s insane plan to be a human forever. Zen, Saeyoung, Jaehee, Minki, Saeran, and Yoosung, of course. Vanderwood was with V, and so far, none of them knew if they knew what was going on. V didn’t, either, not yet.

“Alright, we’re here to discuss possibilities of how to make this happen. Of those who could become permanently mer to make Yoosung permanently human, we’re down to the options of Saeran, which would be counter-productive, and Jaehee, who has commitments here on the surface,” Jumin said. There were nods and some shuffling. “So the question is, who becomes a mer?”

“I can do it. I know that the first spell will be painful, but if it means I can be with Jaehee more, both in the sea and kind of on land, I’m okay with that,” Minki said. Jumin considered the option.

“I could do it for the same reasons,” Saeyoung said. “If I become a full mer, then I can spend time with Zen, and he would just go to the surface to perform.”

“Well, after Yoosung said it, I kind of think I’d prefer being on land, too. You’ve got stuff up here, I have stuff up here. It would just work out, you know?” Zen said.

“This is becoming more of a problem than I thought it would be,” Jumin said.

“Shut up, you jerk. Why would you even help him with this, in the first place?”

“Because Yoosung is my friend, and if it weren’t for the fact that no one else can cast the spell, and I’m my father’s only son, I would gladly go into the ocean myself.”

“Right...”

“Regardless, it seems that, unless someone is willing to give something up, we can’t make Yoosung into a human forever,” Jaehee said.

“That’s okay. I just… wanted to know if it was possible. We don’t have to, if there’s no one to substitute.”

“Maybe we should just see what V has to say,” Saeran said. This many people in a room was starting to make him uncomfortable, and as much as he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Yoosung, it wasn’t going to be possible if he died of anxiety.

“Agreed. Let’s go.” They left, piling into Jumin’s van. It didn’t help the situation, but Saeran held on. Yoosung held his hand, rubbing small circles into it.

“I really like the mobility this type of body gives me,” Yoosung said quietly.

“I like the feeling of swimming as a mer. Hey, since I’ll still have the spell on me, we can go swimming sometimes. Then I can try to scare you, like you did the first time we met,” replied Saeran. That made Yoosung laugh.

“I remember that! You started freaking out, and then you just… stopped swimming. I didn’t realize at the time that you were drowning until you woke up on land.”

The group arrived at the hospital, and went to see V. The nurse wasn’t sure about letting so many people into the room at once, but she let them through with a few zeroes on a nice crisp bank note.

To this day, none of them have spoken a word about that particular fact. It’s omitted even in private.

Yoosung, upon entering the room, saw V sitting up in his bed. It had been a few days since they returned, and he was recovering well enough. Vanderwood was by his side, having had nothing else to do except keep an eye on him.

“Hello, everyone. What brings you here?”

“I want to become a full human, but we need someone human to become a mer in my stead,” Yoosung said. Saeran was waiting outside, not wanting to disturb V.

“I see. Who’s it going to be?”

“We don’t know. Everyone here has a commitment to this side of the world,” Jumin said. Vanderwood thought for a moment, then pointed at themself.

“I can do it.”

“But---”

“Yes, it’s going to painful. Zen told me about the procedure to becoming part of the other side, and Saeran elaborated. I don’t care. I’ve been through plenty myself, and seen the insides of more emergency rooms and intensive care units than I care to count. Whatever this spell throws at me will be nothing.”

“Are you really so sure about leaving like that?” V asked. His voice was windy, and soft.

“I’m sure. I think I’ll go to the tropics.”

“Ooh, which part of the tropics?” Saeyoung asked. Vanderwood looked at him with a withering glare.

“You’re not going to find out.” That made Saeyoung pout. Outside the door, Saeran snorted.

“Where’s your brother?” Vanderwood asked.

“He’s outside. He didn’t want V to get uncomfortable with his presence. His words.”

“I see,” V said. “It’s alright. I don’t blame him for what happened, since it was my own fault. If I hadn’t been in the way, hadn’t tried to protect her, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Right. We need to deal with her, don’t we? I can bring her to Mama, or whatever. That thing kills anything that gets too close, right?” Vanderwood raised an eyebrow, lowering it as Yoosung nodded.

“Okay. Then let’s get this done.”

 

Once V was able to leave the hospital for awhile, everyone went down to the beach. Jaehee and Minki, Saeyoung and Zen, Yoosung and Saeran, V, Vanderwood, and Jumin. No one was missing from their group, this time. Jumin had everything for the spell prepared. It used a double magic circle, but no ingredients this time. Saeran thought it odd, but let it go as Yoosung and Vanderwood entered their circles. He stayed near Yoosung, ready to catch him when he fainted.

Vanderwood and Jumin had been here earlier, getting Vanderwood made into a mer. From what Jumin said, they never fainted, and asked if the tingling would stop soon.

“Ready?” Jumin asked. Both Yoosung and Vanderwood nodded. He started the spell, and the magic circles glowed. Parts of both of them left their bodies, glowing brilliantly, moving along the edges of the circles to the other side, then entered the other person’s body. Vanderwood breathed in suddenly, as a vaguely fish-shaped light entered their body. Yoosung screamed as a humanoid light figure entered him. He fainted, and once the spell finished, Saeran rushed in to hold him.

Vanderwood was, as they had been earlier, mostly unfazed, aside from the fact that they were now flipping a tail on the beach. There were white stripes leading from their back to the front, and brown fading into white in the same way. Vanderwood’s fin was fairly standard and nondescript. Altogether, they didn’t cut an impressive figure.

“There. I’m going to the Bahamas. Or something. I don’t know. Do we have Rika here?”

“Yeah, she’s in the van, completely knocked out.”

“Got it. Bring her along, I’ll get her to Mama, and then decide where I’m going from there. Tell Yoosung I said goodbye, have fun with your lives.” Vanderwood crawled their way to the water line, taking a moment to revel in the feel of the waves beneath their webbed fingers.

“Come back and visit, sometime!” Saeyoung called. Vanderwood saluted as Rika was dragged to the shore, and then to the water. Minki and Jumin dragged her into the water until she transformed, at which point Vanderwood took her under an arm and disappeared beneath the waves.

“So that’s all taken care of, right?” Saeran asked.

“Yep. That’s all there is to it,” Saeyoung replied.

 

Yoosung woke up a few hours later, once they had gotten him home to Jumin’s penthouse. He had gripped onto his starfish so quickly, Saeran felt like he was little more than a child.

Saeran knew better.

“Where’s Vanderwood? Did they go off into the ocean already?”

“Yeah, they did. And they took Rika, too,” Saeran said. Yoosung nodded.

“It’s for the best,” he said. Then he started crying. Saeran balked, then pulled him into a hug.

“It’s okay, Yoosung. She was too far gone. Besides, Vanderwood’s gonna visit, one day. They can tell us how it went then.”

 

It went great, at first, until Rika woke up. Then she started screaming and hissing and trying to bite Vanderwood, who promptly knocked her the fuck out because they had been dealing with Saeyoung for years and was so over people being obnoxious without any real consequences.

That pattern continued until they were out where the ocean is only ever cold, far from islands and civilization of any kind. At that point, Rika realized that she wasn’t going to win against Vanderwood, and Vanderwood was tireless in getting across the ocean.

“Are you done, then? Can you swim on your own? Because you’re really heavy, and I’d rather not have to carry you the entire way.”

“I can swim on my own,” Rika said. Vanderwood didn’t trust her in the slightest, and let her go. She swam obediently for a little while, then tried to bolt for the deeper seas. Vanderwood was having none of that, either. They knocked her out again, and kept swimming.

Once that little episode was over, Rika was perfectly willing to swim wherever Vanderwood told her to. That got them all the way to the American coasts, and then across the Panama Canal as Vanderwood decided to fuck the idea of swimming all the way around South America. It was a trip to make it without getting caught, but they managed, mostly because Vanderwood convinced Rika that they’d be caught and stuffed.

“Americans are babaric,” they said. “Trust me, I’ve worked with my fair share.”

The Mariana’s Trench, where Mama was rumored to live, was relatively close after that. It was another several weeks of swimming, then diving down deep to reach her. They passed a mer city, where both were told numerous times not to dive too deep. Vanderwood kept a hold of Rika the entire time, and grinned toothily when they said that they were planning to drop someone off.

Rika finally put the pieces together, but they were on the other side of the world from Korea with no way of communicating. She was stuck and scared.

An hour later, she was screaming, a single large tentacle coming up from the depths to wrap around her and drag her below. Vanderwood could have sworn they heard someone talking in their head, thanking them for bringing this wayward child home. It didn’t make sense. For everything Vanderwood was, they knew they weren’t crazy.

 

Saeran went out and got the mail. He, his brother, Zen, Yoosung, Jaehee, and Minki had all taken to living in the same apartment building, with their rooms all on the same floor. His and Saeyoung’s were right next to each other, with Jaehee on their other side. Life was pretty good, now that things had been settled. Even better, the apartment building was closer to the ocean than any of them had lived before.

Months had passed since Vanderwood had gone off, and Jaehee had proposed to Minki. Zen still performed in the ocean theater, but most of his time was spent on land. Saeyoung was working on little robotic toys again. Yoosung got his citizenship, and a job at the coffee shop that Jaehee and Minki frequented. Saeran found a flower shop that Yoosung really liked. Minki became a close part of their family. Saeyoung and Zen both joked about dating her, had they met her before.

As Saeran came upstairs with the mail for all of their apartments, he sorted out whose was whose. Then, he reached a postcard that was addressed to all of them, sort of. It was sent to Jumin’s penthouse, and forwarded to them. The postcard featured a picture of palm trees, and had unfamiliar handwriting on the back.

“Hey, Yoosung. Grab everyone, I think I know where Vanderwood got off to.” Yoosung did so, dragging everyone into their apartment.

“You know where Vanderwood went?”

“Yep. They sent two postcards, both to Jumin, and this one was forwarded here. It says they’re having a good time in the Keys, right now, and found some K-pop anime fan to write this out for them. Rika’s taken care of, so we’re safe, and then they say that they’re planning to come back for a visit in a couple years, but it’s a long swim.”

“Then we should--” Saeyoung started.

“Also Saeyoung is strictly forbidden to visit.”

“Aww.”

 

None of them ever really told anyone about this story, until they started having kids. Then, they passed the tales of their times with the mer to them. Zen’s ended up carrying the spell in their genes, able to transform in saltwater. Vanderwood did return to visit, several times over the course of the children’s childhoods.

Saeran and Yoosung adopted several kids, eventually getting a house for themselves as they went. Jumin spoiled all of his little nieces and nephews rotten, of course.

One night, as Saeran was watching the stars over the ocean, he wondered what his life would have been like, if he hadn’t met Yoosung that day, but he couldn’t imagine life without his beloved starfish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end! total of 59,479 words across 149 pages in my word document :D
> 
> comment if you wish :D:D:D

**Author's Note:**

> Supermer Yoosung to the rescue!
> 
> if you have any questions, feel free to ask. im using my own world-building with mermaids in a fantasy setting for this, so questions are appreciated ^^


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